Managing Your Manuscript

Guidelines, contracts, and contributor copies

There are other things you should keep track of once your manuscript has been published.

You'll want to put a copy of the guidelines under which your manuscript was published in your manuscript folder. This gives you a quick way to refresh your memory about the rights that you sold with that manuscript. This should only be a guideline, as any contract that you've signed regarding the manuscript will be legally binding.

Your contract is another thing you should put in your manuscript folder. You should also keep a record of the payment, if any, that you received. Keeping your contract and payment information is the best way to guard yourself against any legal or tax problems later on. You may also want to keep track of any money you've received from manuscripts in another location, but I leave that to you to figure out. I'm no legal expert. Nor am I a tax expert. I just know you need to keep this stuff in the event that some unforeseen incident creeps up on you.

Another thing to put into your manuscript folder is your contributor's copies if you received one. If you published online, you can always save your published manuscript or print it out. Holding onto your contributor copy is also a good way to keep track of any changes that you and your editor might have worked out before your manuscript was published.