I am continuing the discussion on the importance and power of naming. God named the stars because it mattered. We should give care to naming the things under our stewardship. It will shape the perception they receive in the marketplace and potentially make or break the product itself. 

I remember helping a friend years ago negotiate a publishing contract. They were at an impasse and I offered to draft up a prospective contract for consideration.  The publisher had offered a small royalty rate and wasn’t willing to budge. Among the things I introduced in the contract was a 5% IPA.  We left the royalty rate the same, which made the publisher happy, but we added the all important 5% IPA.

The IPA was an Inflationary Protection Allowance and came with its suitable definition and appropriate justification in case the publisher was unfamiliar with it, which was highly likely seeing as how we had just invented this clause to allow the publisher to save face while at the same time grant my friend the extra royalty flow he needed! We gave the clause a name because things tend to gain legitimacy when they have a name and lack it when they don’t.  Not only did my friend get a substantial royalty advance, but he also got an appropriate and fair royalty rate, even if part of it had to be named something else!

Whenever possible, name the things that fall under your jurisdiction. It will give them credibility and increase the likelihood of acceptance.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 5:00 am by Michael Q. Pink and is filed under Selling Among Wolves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.