LITERARY LAWYER
Publishing Contract Review, Negotiation, and Drafting • Consultation • Legal Services
for Authors, Literary Agents, and Publishers
For Authors
Expert Advocacy
A publishing attorney can guide you through the publishing process and advocate on your behalf, getting you the strongest deal terms and protecting your rights as an author.
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Author services include:
• Contract review and negotiation with trade publishers (from indie to big 5), university presses and other academic publishers, and hybrid publishers.
• Pre-publication manuscript legal reviews.
• Literary agency agreement review and negotiation.
• Drafting releases, co-author agreements, ghostwriting agreements, illustrator agreements, and anthology contributor agreements.
• Copyright and permissions consultation.
• General publishing industry and legal consultation.
For Agents
Stronger Deals for Your Clients
Secure the best terms for your clients by hiring us for deal memo and contract review, freeing up your time to find new talent, manage current clients, and close more deals.
Agency services include:
• Deal memo consultation.
• Author contract review and negotiation.
• Agency agreement updates.
• Subsidiary rights license review and negotiation.
• Drafting co-author agreements and ghostwriting agreements.
• Legal consultation.
For Publishers
Consistency and Expertise
Streamline your contract negotiations and maintain a consistently strong boilerplate, staying up to date with industry standards.
Publisher services include:
• Contract preparation and negotiation.
• New boilerplate drafting and updating.
• Drafting co-author agreements, amendments, termination letters, and other agreements.
• Pre-publication manuscript legal reviews.
• Legal consultation.
About Literary Lawyer
Experienced Negotiation on Both Sides of the Table
With over 12 years of experience in publishing law, Melissa Nasson founded Literary Lawyer to combine her diverse legal and publishing background with her desire to provide expert consultation, legal review, and negotiation services to agents, authors, and publishers. Melissa brings the unique experience of working on both sides of the publishing negotiation table. As Contracts Director and General Counsel at Beacon Press in Boston, Melissa negotiates a full range of publishing agreements—including author contracts, translation, audio, and other subsidiary rights licenses, and film option agreements—and provides legal guidance to all departments on matters ranging from permissions and fair use to defamation. She also has extensive drafting experience, with a focus on balancing thoroughness with clarity and brevity.
As a former literary agent at Rubin Pfeffer Content, a boutique children's literary agency, Melissa negotiated contracts on behalf of agency clients with a wide range of publishers, from boutique to Big 5.
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Melissa joined the affiliated faculty at Emerson College in Spring 2020, teaching Publishing Law in the graduate program for Writing, Literature, and Publishing.
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Melissa graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University. A Terrier for life, she also graduated from Boston University School of Law. Melissa is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts. She currently lives in Boston.
CONTACT
Contact Literary Lawyer to discuss your needs.
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Melissa Nasson, Esq.
Email: melissa@literarylawyer.com