The Short Fuse Guide to Book Publishing Rights

By Laurie McLean

Literary Agent Laurie McLean walks you through the different rights involved in publishing a book and shows you how best to use them to maximize your profit. This goes way beyond the book itself and includes audiobooks, film/TV, foreign translation, merchandise, and many other known and emerging areas of rights—even tips on negotiating and how to get back rights you’ve signed away. Make more money by thinking outside of the covers.

Short Fuse Guides offer tips and tricks for writers, written by agents and covering different areas of the ever-changing publishing industry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Short Fuse Publishing
• Release date: Nov 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310902918

Laurie McLean

Laurie McLean is a romance and fantasy novelist, literary agent with Foreword Literary and cofounder of both Joyride Books and Ambush Books.

Book preview

THE SHORT FUSE GUIDE TO BOOK PUBLISHING RIGHTS

By Laurie McLean

A Short Fuse Guide

Published 2014 by Short Fuse Publishing, a Fuse Literary imprint.

http://fuseliterary.com

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 Laurie McLean

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. All inquiries should be addressed to [e-mail].

Cover images Copyright © 2014 Fotolia Stock Images

Cover design by Laura Cummings

ISBN: 9781310902918

Disclaimer: This book is intended for educational purposes only with the sole intent of helping authors better understand certain documents they may be asked to sign. It is not written by a lawyer, nor should it be substituted for qualified legal advice. With regard to specific, personalized issues and negotiations, before action is taken, further counsel should be sought from a publishing attorney licensed to practice in your state.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROFIT PROPHET: MAKING MONEY FROM THE RIGHTS YOU OWN

PRIMARY RIGHTS: THE MAIN EVENT

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS: OPPORTUNITIES GALORE

ESTABLISHED SUBRIGHTS

Audiobooks

Foreign Translations

Dramatic (Movies, TV, Plays)

Commercial/Merchandise

Comic Strips/Graphic Novels

Serialization

Book Clubs

Anthologies/Excerpts

EMERGING SUBRIGHTS

Mobile

Enhanced E-books/Apps

Video Games/Board Games

Multimedia

Spin-Offs/Derivative Works

Podcasts

World and Characters

Blogs/Websites

Fan Fiction

Subscription/Updated Content

GETTING PAID ON TIME: RATE OF PAYMENT IS NEGOTIABLE

REVERSION OF RIGHTS: SPELL IT OUT

RENEGOTIATION OF RIGHTS: LEAVE YOURSELF AN OUT

OPTION AND NON-COMPETE CLAUSES: LIMIT THESE

AUTHOR APPROVAL

NEGOTIATING TIPS

IN CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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PROFIT PROPHET: MAKING MONEY FROM THE RIGHTS YOU OWN

You’ve finally finished your book. You’ve written it, edited it multiple times, shared it with critique partners and beta readers, copyedited it one final time, made it as perfect as you were able, and all your hard work has paid off. This book is either being traditionally or self-published, and as you transition from the right-brain creative side of writing into the left-brain business side of publishing, you want to make sure your book works as hard as you did creating it to make money.

Come on. Admit it. You hope your book makes lots of money.