A Postscript:

I just learned from the publisher I was talking to that they may have lost a client because of this thread. They are upset at the posts here that portrayed them as disreputable or unethical. Read my first post and you'll see that I did not see them that way. To the contrary, they seemed nothing but professional to me, and I regret that they lost a client due to this thread.

However, for reasons I can't understand, they believe that I (by starting this thread) have questioned their integrity as well, and today they withdrew their offer to publish or plug my songs. I'm not sure how I feel about that, since I was not yet comfortable going forward without a reversion clause. So perhaps it's all for the best. And the fact that they sort of blame me for whatever defamatory posts are on this thread also makes me question whether I would have been comfortable working with them. But I thought you'd all like to know what happened.

FWIW, I tend to suspect that these sorts of agreements may be fairly standard for new writers like me. Clearly, people sign over 100% of publishing all the time (and retain the writer's half of royalties). My only question was whether publishing contracts without reversion clauses are unusual, or a bad deal. I still don't know the answer to that, but regret that my question led to so much negative comment directed at this publisher.