My take and what I’ve heard through the grapevine. Publishers use phrases such as “you may be picked up by our royalty paying house!” as worms on the hook. Do not bite. It doesn’t happen often.

And as for it being legal, here’s the thing: In contract law, if you sign the document that does these things, it’s legal. The only way to break a contract is to go to court, and then only if one party does something truly illegal (asking for the real firstborn child) or if a judge deems that a party has overreached. One judge might think so, but another might not, so it’s better to avoid signing bad clauses in the first place.

Oh, and look at my posts from the summer called “Dealbreakers.” That explains some of this as well.

Kidding, of course.

I know why names aren’t given, but I suspect if the industry suffers even a partial collapse with the midlist fleeing in mass names and accusations and reveals are going to start flying out onto the Internet. Could get ugly but also illuminating.

Underline this and circle it in red. Remember that Kickstarter and the IRS will claim some amount of what you get. Remember to factor in costs. Remember that these costs need to SCALE. E.g., Steve Jackson Games Kickstartered their classic OGRE wargame — and my gods did it overfund! (Comma deliberately left out for effect.) All the stretch goals are making the game that much cooler, but they’ve also slowed down production of it.

In less “sweet stars and little fishies!” territory, remember that if you’re going to mail stuff to your supporters, you have to factor in postage, postage overseas, and the sheer effort of lugging all that stuff to the post office!

If you think you can get a free copy of your product, double-check that assumption — you might wind up having to pay for your own copies, and a higher price than you expected. You don’t want to wind up in the hole after you reward your supporters!

…basically, underline, circle, and highlight that one.