Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Royalties for information

If you want to be paid to give the info, ask for payment. If you don't ask, and enter into a written contract now, you will have a tough time later.

Re: Royalties for information

The information is not your property and is not about you, so you are not entitled to royalties. At the same time, you are not obligated to help the writers and they might be willing to pay you something to make it worth your while. Whether and how much they will be willing to pay will depend upon a number of factors, including the type of book it is (historians and journalists, for example, probably won't pay you because it is considered unethical) and how much demand they expect there to be for the book (a book that might sell 50,000 copies won't justify as much of a fee as a book they think will sell a million).

You can ask the authors to pay you for your time and they might agree, since there might be no other source for the same information, or the other available sources might be impractical. Or they might decide that you are the impractical source because you are demanding money, in which case they might look elsewhere.

Be careful how much you ask for, though, because they are under no obligation to give you anything and they could decide to leave you out of the process. Also keep in mind that the book may portray your grandfather in ways you don't like, and you might want to tell the authors your story in order to preserve his reputation even if you don't get paid.

Re: Royalties for information

I'd also recommend entering negotiations with the people. Lay it out on the table for them at the start of things. I've found that if you are honest right up front it prevents later misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Remember, they are looking to your for information so you have the superior position here, don't forget that and undervalue yourself.

If you'd like some assistance or general guidelines of what to request or how to request what you desire (or even to know what to expect as compared to yur desires), please feel free to contact me at my office 626-578-0708, or through my firm's web site at RulesofEmployment.com.

Congrats on your new direction of success, I hope it pans out in the best means possible for you.

Scott Linden