As if that weren't bad enough, it also includes two provisions that, even in contracts that are more professional and complete than this one, can be red-flag warnings.

Promotion and publicity shall be at Publisher’s election and discretion as to the character, scope and extent thereof.

With this or similar language, the publisher may be trying to convince you that it actively promotes and publicizes its books (because of course you want that from a publisher), while ensuring that it can blow off your dissatisfaction when it turns out to do little or nothing. "It says right in the contract that publicity is at our discretion," it may tell you when you ask it to explain why its sole marketing strategy is a poorly-written press release sent to a list of people you provided. "We didn't promise anything else."