 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? Some of the most common subsidiary rights publishers buy from authors include:
What's not on this list? Dramatic rights, meaning the right to adapt the book for performance, such as movies, television, stage plays, or podcasts. It's very rare for publishers to retain dramatic rights to a book because most publishers don't have in-house dramatic production teams. Usually, the sale of dramatic rights is handled by an agent who specializes in book-to=film deals, rather than the author's literary agent. Selling subsidiary rights matters because every time an author can sell a subsidiary right, they get money from the sale. Part of a literary agent's job is negotiating the sale of these rights to publishers and knowing which rights to sell alongside the hardcover and which ones to sell elsewhere (to foreign publishers, for example). Not all publishers will pay the same amount of money for the same right, so retaining the rights may give the author the chance to make more money by selling different subsidiary rights to multiple publishers. Attend a writers conference in 2025:
 This post was composed by Carlie Webber, a certified professional editor and former literary agent currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration at Pepperdine University. Her favorite genres to read and edit include MG, YA, mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, and contemporary fiction. Carlie is part of the social media staff at Writing Day Workshops. Comments are closed.
|
Top CategoriesCategories
All
|
RSS Feed