Writers’ Rights
Wednesday Writing Weekly No #71
If you are trying to publish a book, are negotiating a contract, or want to copyright your work… do you know where to start? I’ll give you a hint, that last part was a trick!
I imagine we have all heard of contracts, copyright, and have worried about our rights as authors of our works at one time. Did you know if you are the writer of a piece, you do not need to copyright it because you, the author, are already the sole owner of that idea? You own those rights unless you give them away to someone else!
Writers’ Rights: The Types
Copyright: Legal rights to an intellectual property. Granted by federal law and gives copyright to authors in a tangible on-paper way. Authors do not have to apply for copyright of their own work. This can automatically be called, “literary rights,” or “author rights.”
Now you know what copyright means, what does it really mean? What are you allowed to do when you are the author of a work (who holds the rights to that work) or the owner of the rights?
Permission to reproduce, print, or distribute the work.
Read, recite, present, display, or perform said work in public.
Create, sell, or make derivatives on the original work (reprints, articles continuing said work, adding chapters, framing with a foreword, conclusion, etc.)
As the author, you are obviously allowed to do this with your own work. When you step into the world of publishing (not self-publishing) you will need to sign the rights of the work to your publisher or the body publishing or sharing your work. For example, if I publish a poem in a literary journal, there will be a contract stating what usage rights that journal has with my poem. For book publishers, there will be a list of what rights they have to your work, how they can use and distribute it.
As someone who is not the author and does not have ownership or copyright over a copyrighted work, you can still quote, mention, or refer to these works under the Fair Use and Libraries Exception laws. That’s why I can tell you my favorite line in John Green’s, The Fault in Our Stars is, “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once,” without being in trouble of stealing or misusing that work.
Types of Rights
Primary Rights: Let’s start here. These are the rights to publish a work between an author and a publisher.
Subsidiary Rights: Right to publish a work but also any kind of adaptation from movies or television show rights, translation rights, and more. Literally anything this story can be made into such as comics, games, theatre, merchandising, and more.
Here are some common types of rights you may come across beyond the two listed above:
All Rights: The author remains the author (by name) but gives away all rights such as the ability or allowance to market, publish, distribute, perform, or the ability to create derivative works.
Book Club Rights: This gives book clubs (through the publisher) permission to use quotes and excerpts and share will the books’ proceeds with the publisher. This can also be known as a “Book Club Clause” in a publishing contract.
Distribution Rights: Allows the selling and distribution of your work, who can give out copies, and who can use, buy, or sell your work.
Electronic Rights: Permission to publish your work online, as e-books, etc. This is generally for “electronic versions” of your work.
Excerpt Rights: The right to use a long book quote. Fair Use allows quotes of a copyrighted work, but you cannot quote something and then share an extended section of said work, without permission. You can only quote up to 250 words under fair use, per book (depending on the book’s length.)
Exclusive Rights: Nowadays, you’ll hear this with where someone can publish or post their work. Exclusive works means you give these rights to only one platform or company. For example, if you give exclusive rights to publish on Amazon as an indie author, you cannot publish your work on another site. Make sure this has an agreed upon term!
Film Rights: Gives permission to create a film from the copyrighted work.
First Serial Rights: Permission to publish or print an excerpt of a book, before its release. It’s a preview!
Foreign Rights: This gives copyright or licensing permissions to publishers outside your original country of publication.
Paperback Rights: Rights to publish a work in the paperback format. Usually found packaged with reprint rights.
Reprint Rights: Rights to publish a work in another format. i.e. a book can be published as a hardback book but the rights to paperback will need to be acquired for a paperback version. Other versions can be mass market paperback, e-books, or trade paperback.
Translation Rights: The right to translate a copyrighted piece into another language.
Work for Hire: When multiple people are working on one project, this details who owns the copyright of the project. i.e. think of ghostwriters or co-authors!
When selling the rights of your book to a publisher, there should be a defined license term outlining when they have these rights and when that will come to an end. You will need to discuss payment, when royalties are sent, and what the expectations are from both parties. These rights are a product you are allowing the publishers to use. This is why you are paid by publishers--not the other way around!!!
Conclusion
I think this will help you start to gather a solid understanding of rights writers can have or sell over their works. A lot of the above contracts can double up and repeat each other but what it comes down to is that the exact use of your work, how long that publisher or company has those rights, and where your work is going needs to be spelled out down to the very last letter.
This is not an exhaustive list. For example, you can have North American First Subsidiary Rights. I recently signed a contract earlier this year outlining that I was allowing a publication to use my work for online and in print publications with me as the author. It’s a nice way to know how your work is being used and that it won’t be used in any other way without your permission! And if it is used without your permission, you have the paperwork to back it up.