O. J. Simpson's contract

[dianeduane]

...for the book that didn't get published, starts on page 16 of this fascinating document.

Just look at all those zeroes. (Not that the poor ghostwriter gets to have many of them...)

Comments

[aqeldroma.livejournal.com]

125,000 to ghostwrite doesn't sound shabby to me... although he's being advanced almost 4x that. Sheesh. I wish I could afford to offer that to MY authors!

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

They're being a bit stingy with the zeros really -- those first five $95,000 payments (followed by a $100,000 and a $400,000 -- that's more like it with the zeros!

The interview terms are weird. That's what the big payment is attached to, and the rights for that go entirely and permanently to the publisher.

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Egad... is that more or less typical of a contract with a publisher? And I thought negotiations between the writers of our APA (usually starting with "hey, can I do [x] to your character?") were arcane...