Beware of Selling Your Rights
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Most creative writers are so eager to sell their work that they don’t stop to consider what rights they are selling. The word “Rights” is an indicator of how the publisher can use your work. “Rights” is not an indicator of how much you get paid or how you copyright your work.
Editors will usually buy First North American Serial Rights (FNASR). After the buyer publishes the story one time in North America, the author once again retains the rights to it. When selling these rights to a magazine, put “Offering First North American Serial Rights” in the top left corner of your page.
· One Time Serial Rights – If you are simultaneously offering your story or article to several publications, you will want to place “One Time Serial Rights” at the top of the page. This grants the first magazine that snaps up your work the right to publish your story or article one time.
· Second Serial Rights – If you have previously sold the story or article, you will be offering Second Serial Rights to the next magazine. They will be able to publish your work once.
· All Rights – Unless someone is hiring you to develop a work for them, such as developing a course for a school, shudder at the sight of these rights. It means that whoever bought your work has all the rights to it. You may never sell the work again, publish it, copy it, download it, or transfer it. All rights are gone – zero is the most you have left.
Work for Hire – Shiver at the sight of this one, too. Work for Hire can only exist in two ways: Either you have created a document as an independent contractor and you are selling the rights to it, or you are being paid as an employee and you create the work during your work time – which gives your boss all rights.
Non-Exclusive Rights is less than desirable, too. The rights will revert back to you in a year and you will be able to market it again, but the original buyer can continue using the work and reproducing it in syndication without splitting profits with you.
Exclusive Rights – You are giving the farm away if you sign up under these rights. One example would be Associated Content. The rights go to them and never revert back to you. Your work is gone. Ker-plunk! It’s flushed.
· One-time rights – You can sell one time rights simultaneously to as many people as you want. Columnists use this right to sell their articles to multiple markets.
Some of these rights have only a whisker of difference between them. Hang onto this article and refer back to it before you sign anything!
There are many more types of rights as well, but this covers the most prominent ones.
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