How do you go about negotiating changes you want made in a contract you’ve received from a publisher? I’m very intimated by this and am not sure how I would go about it. Email them? Call them? Send in a hard copy with the changes you want? And what changes should you expect to be able to get made and which ones are pretty much set in stone?
If you’re in the national market, GET AN AGENT! They’re going to know the publisher and how to negotiate for you.
If you’re in the LDS market, just talk to them. These are people. If you’re polite and reasonable, they should be polite and reasonable back. With contract in hand, call your contact. Go over the points that you want to negotiate.
As to what changes you can expect—that varies by publisher. Point A might be negotiable for one publisher, but not for another. Some publishers might negotiate on everything, others won’t negotiate anything. Wish I could be of more help.