How old do you have to be for a book contract?

[Joss]

Firstly, you can't sign anything unless you're 18. Until then, your parents have to sign on your behalf. This is what I think: she doesn't know you're underage yet, and when she figures out, she's going to cease all contact with you because there's no way you can sign a legally binding contract. So, either way, you're going to have to tell her how old you are unless you can get your parents to sign the contract for you.

Secondly, it sounds like she's a freelance editor. Are you ready to pay to have this person edit your manuscript? And her editing it doesn't guarantee it's going to be published; editors get paid whether or not your manuscript gets published - you pay them upfront.

Your manuscript is your the book you wrote. Literary theft is rare, so I wouldn't worry about her stealing it. Frankly, regardless of how highly you think of your manuscript, it's worthless while it's unpublished. And you have an automatic copyright as long as it's in complete, fixed form. Scammers aren't interested in stealing a manuscript that most likely won't be good enough to get published unless they put a lot of work into rewriting it, so the way scammers their money is by charging the author a fee. I'm not saying this editor is a scam, she's most likely a freelance editor.

The fact that you're 'totally confused' is the reason why minors can't enter into legally binding contracts. It's best to have an adult deal with this instead of trying to handle it yourself, but like I said earlier, once this editor finds out your age, she's not going to want to deal with you unless you bring your parents to the table.

Poor man's copyright of mailing your manuscript to yourself in a sealed envelope isnt' recognized under the law. All you have to do is read the official US copyright website to learn this, and I'm betting the many people who spread this myth don't do that.