PublishingIntermediate
Rights
The legal permissions to publish, adapt, translate, distribute, or otherwise exploit a work.
Principle
Rights are the book's future uses; granting them casually can be expensive.
Takeaways
- Contracts define which rights are granted, reserved, or shared.
- Territory, language, format, and term are central rights questions.
- A smaller advance can be outweighed by retaining valuable rights.
Overview
Rights are the bundle of permissions attached to a literary work: print, ebook, audio, translation, territory, film, television, dramatic, merchandising, and more. Publishing contracts are largely rights documents, because they determine who may do what with the work, where, for how long, and for what compensation.
Examples
- An author grants North American print and ebook rights but reserves translation.
- An agent sells audio rights separately from print rights.
- A contract asks for broad rights the publisher is unlikely to exploit.