 One of the biggest distinctions between book publishing and other creative industries like music is that the author always retains the full copyright and ownership over their work. Look at the front matter of any book, and you'll find a line that says something like "Copyright © 2025 by Dean Winchester." Sometimes, authors have an LLC or other company they use to handle proceeds from their work, so it might say "Copyright © 2025 Winchester Productions Inc." What's more important than the name next to the copyright is the fact that the author, not the publishing company, owns the publishing rights.
Because they own their works, authors do not actually sell their books to publishing companies. They sell the rights for the publisher to publish the book in certain formats. Any right an author grants a publisher to publish a book in a format other than hardcover and ebook in North America (assuming the publisher is headquartered in the USA) is called a subsidiary right. What subsidiary rights can authors sell? |
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