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Publishing Contracts: What You Need to Know

Writers Victoria

Event Date: 4 June 2026 06:30 PM to 4 June 2026 08:30 PM
Author / Presenters: Katherine Day
Event Venue: The Wheeler Centre
Event Organiser: Writers Victoria
Ticket Price: $75 – $115

Understanding publishing contracts and asking the right questions about them are essential tools for writers at every stage of their career.

Come armed with all your questions to this informative session with publishing expert Katherine Day, as she provides an overview of publishing contracts, their pitfalls, how to spot a scam and those clauses that require extra attention.

You will learn:

  • How publishing contracts differ from other contracts
  • How to decode the meaning of the clauses in a standard publishing contract
  • How to recognise the parts of the contract you should be most concerned about
  • How to recognise what you can negotiate and which clauses tend to remain fixed
  • How to evaluate what agents do and how they can help

About the tutor:

Katherine Day is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in Publishing Practice at the University of Melbourne. She has over 15 years’ experience as an editor: in-house at Penguin Books (Australia) and then as a freelance adult fiction and non-fiction editor for Penguin Random House, Allen & Unwin, Thames & Hudson and the University of Queensland Press. Her authors have included Carmel Bird, Maggie Alderson, Anne Brooksbank, Graeme Base, Fiona Horne, Gretel Killeen and Gabrielle Wang.

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