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Diary of a 'contracts' guru

21.09.07 Hannah Davies

From weird and wonderful demands by celebrities to handling hard-nosed City lawyers, a career in contracts is nothing if not challenging. Random House group contracts director Jo Watt talks The Bookseller through a typical day.

 

 

8.30 a.m.
“I arrive at the office and head up to the 6th floor to my desk. The first thing I do is check my emails. Typically, there is a ludicrous number and I go ‘ahh’ and want to cry. Luckily my morning coffee puts me back on track. Each week I have three early starts; I have to rush home at 4.30 p.m. to pick up my two-year-old son from nursery. Consequently, to get things done, I have to be far less scattergun in my approach than in the past.”

9.15 a.m.
“Next up is working out the contracts that need to be drawn up and by when. A lot of my job involves prioritising the most urgent contracts to be completed, be it the initial author contracts, also known as head contracts, or the various rights contracts, including those for serial, film, translation and US deals. I draw up my compulsory to-do list, which is frequently too long to contemplate completing!”

10 a.m.
“My prioritising goes out of the window as an editor phones to see if we can quickly push through the head contract for the latest celebrity book deal (the specifics of which I cannot reveal here). I get to work on looking at precedents to start the draft.  Often high-profile celebrities don’t have a typical literary agent so we go through a different process to complete the contract; dealing with heavy-duty lawyers, responding to unusual queries and drafting new clauses. We are very lucky to have an in-house legal team at Random House which is available for us to consult on the weird and wonderful issues arising from contracts.”

11 a.m.
“I am involved in a conference call, with my boss Charles Boundy, group legal director, and external lawyers from a City law firm, to discuss the specifics of another head contract we are negotiating. Although I’m not a fan of conference calls, this was really interesting because I was dealing with hard-nosed senior lawyers who, although friendly, are certainly not pushovers. It is a challenge to get the best deal for the company, while keeping the author’s representatives happy.”

12 p.m.
“To give me flexibility to handle the unpredictable problems that arise with contracts, my meetings are rarely scheduled in, so I find myself with some rare spare time. My office door is always open so Gemma Avery, senior contracts manager, pops in to discuss a query arising from a warranty. Working with my team is a part of the job I love and I try to teach them as much as possible about the business.”

1 p.m.
“It is time for my daily run to clear my head. I head off to the gym, rather than the local roads of Pimlico, to avoid being seen all hot and bothered by my colleagues heading back to the office. I have to admit that lunch, as standard, consists of a sandwich eaten at my desk.”

2 p.m.
“As I like to speak to colleagues face to face, I pop downstairs to the rights department to drop off some completed contracts for signature. While there, I stop by the office belonging to Jonathan Sissons, the deputy rights director, to chat about a serial problem with one of the big newspapers that needs resolving. I also stick my head in to update the rights director, Jane Kirby, on the progress of her US contracts.”

2.45 p.m.
“Back in my office, I write up my notes from the morning’s conference call, pulling together the queries that I need to pass on to Richard Cable, CCV m.d., so we can progress with the contract for his author. At the moment I am enjoying working on more head contracts than usual as Trevor Dolby and Rosie de Courcy have been busy buying books for their new fiction and non-fiction imprint, Preface.”

3.30 p.m.
“My last task for the day involves revising a guideline note for my department, which will no doubt need changing again soon. It addresses all the recent issues thrown up from various contractual discussions surrounding such key publishing topics as digital rights, territoriality and exclusivity in Europe.”

4.30 p.m.
“I leave as promptly as possible to make the mad dash home up the Victoria line on the Underground. I have to admit that despite a productive day, I find myself checking my emails after my son has gone to bed and working quite late. Surely a lot of working parents do the same thing?”

Random House Hannah Davies job Jo Watt

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