If this is considered to be a Hot Topic, please remove it. But I think it is a serious matter to authors. I recently read an alarming article in the NY Times.
In these current times there is a increasingly widespread “morality clause” publishers have added to standard book contracts with authors. Over the past few years Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House have added such clauses to their standard book contracts.
These clauses release a company from the obligation to publish a book for past or future conduct of the author, if it is inconsistent with the author’s reputation at the time the agreement is executed, comes to light and results in sustained, widespread public condemnation of the author that materially diminishes the sales potential of the work.
I’ve read a new paragraph popping up in authors yearly contracts that pretty much states if, in the company’s sole judgment, the writer “becomes the subject of public disrepute, contempt, complaints or scandals,” the publisher can terminate the agreement (and often get back any advances).
That is scary because a writer need not have done anything wrong... they only need become scandalous in the news or on social media. So a publisher could terminate a contract simply by the author writing or saying something that somehow offends some group of outspoken people.
I know Stephen King is a mega star in the writer’s world, and can probably dictate his own conditions, but I was wondering if he had a view on the matter as it relates to other and new authors in regards to morality clauses in these contracts.