How to sign a contract when you're in Australia and your publisher is in New York

Australia, like any civilized country, uses metric paper sizes.  The US still uses mediaeval letter-sized paper measured in inches.  All they need is the last page printed and signed.  All I need is one letter-sized page.  Here's how you do it:

  1. Go insane trying to find letter-sized paper in Australia.
  2. Send wife out to find letter-sized paper.
  3. Give up.
  4. Buy some A3 sketching paper.
  5. Get the last contract, which is printed on letter-size.
  6. Trace around the old contract onto the A3.
  7. Cut out the tracing with scissors.
  8. Place custom-built page into home printer paper tray that's designed for A4.
  9. Print and send.
  10. Resolve to buy sheaf of letter paper next time I'm in the US.
That contract takes me out to Book 4, with an option on Book 5, so the tale of Nico and Diotima continues.

Book 4's working title is The Marathon Conspiracy.  Working titles almost never survive, so it might appear next year under a different name.  I don't yet have a stable working title for Book 5.  I normally cycle through a few before I find something that feels right.  

But the next book of course is Book 3, and that's on sale in May.  It's called Sacred Games.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I would have thought somewhere like Officeworks would have carried that. Fail to you Officeworks.

Brilliant (and hilarious) solution though.

Gary Corby said...

I thought OfficeWorks would have it too. Which is why I said to my agent, "Sure, no problem!"

Turns out they don't.

Amalia Dillin said...

Ha! Congratulations on managing to find a way to sign it! And on the contract itself! Looking forward to May! (My book comes out in March and I feel like it is RACING to meet me.)

Colin Smith said...

May! Yes!! Another book to look forward to this year. :) Perhaps you should persuade your ever-resourceful agent to send you a ream of US paper...? :)

By the way, I noticed the redesign of the site. A hint at the cover for book 3, perhaps?

Gary Corby said...

Hi Colin,

My ever resourceful agent, while I was hand-making 8.5" x 11" paper, went out and bought a ream of A4!

So now I'm sending her two copies of the signed page, one in each size.

You do indeed observe the next cover on the way. I pulled that background straight off the new cover bitmap, but now that it's up I can see it's way overpowering as a web site background, so I'm doing some tone down. We better call it a work in progress. Watch this space.



Gary Corby said...

Good luck with Forged By Fate, Amalia!

Stephanie Thornton said...

I had no idea U.S. paper sizes were different. It drives me nuts that we don't use the metric system like civilized humans. (And then we complain that our students have a hard time making the conversions).

Congratulations on Book #4 and the option on #5! My husband will be so excited--we're both looking forward to Sacred Games!