After all those weeks, months, maybe years, of slaving over your manuscript, the end is finally in sight: getting published! But while you may still be on a euphoric high at finally landing a publisher interested in your work, don’t forget the importance about learning how to protect your work and making sure you maximize your potential earnings!
Do you know that your copyright does not only refer to a one-time publication of your book? Any book has the potential of expanding beyond its original publishing package. For example, how many books do you know have been translated into other languages? Or turned into a movie or TV series?
These offshoots of your work can continue to earn you royalties, so make sure you take a close look at these. Some authors make the mistake of signing away all of their rights. Learn to be an author who knows how to divide these rights and sell them little by little, to make the most out of a publishing deal.
Learn your basic author rights
First, let’s talk about the basic rights you have as an author. Some of these come automatically by virtue of the fact that you created your original manuscript. These rights protect you intellectual property.
The Copyright Act in the United States gives writers the exclusive right to control their writing. Although specific laws may vary in different countries, they normally give protection in the following basic ways:
- To create copies of the work: The author has the fundamental right of determining who can make copies of his work.
- To create offshoot or derivative works based on the original piece: The copyright doesn’t just protect the original manuscript; instead, it goes beyond that to anything derived from the original, such as film or radio adaptations, sequels, and even offshoots like reimaginings.
- To sell or lease out copies of the work to the public: Authors control distribution, but they can sell the rights to distribute their work in different countries to different organizations or people.
When you get your work published, you essentially sell the rights to publish your work. Writers can take these basic rights and sell them piece by piece to a publisher. Yes, you read that right: you don’t have to sell all your rights in one go. But yes, a publisher may ask for it all. That’s why you need to be wise and be diligent in reading through the publishing contract.
Why is it important to keep parts of your rights? First, you don’t know just how well the publisher can manage your work. But if you already give them complete control of publishing and selling your work worldwide, you won’t have any more say, or even any choice in granting those rights to a different company in a different country.
In addition to understanding that you shouldn’t sign away all rights in one go, in this post, we hope to enlighten you on the importance of first serial rights.
What are serial rights?
Serial rights are part of the subsidiary-rights package: this refers to sales of your book to paperback publishers, book clubs, foreign publishers, and even to television and movie producers.
First serial rights refers to the power of the buying entity to publish part or all of your work anywhere even before it officially comes out.
What does that mean? When a periodical buys the first-serial rights to a book, they gain the exclusive right to publish excerpts before the book actually comes out in print. This can be used as a marketing strategy, which can also benefit you.
Second serial rights gives them the ability to publish those excerpts on or after the publication release date. First serial rights tend to cost more, but either of them can prove to be a good income booster for the author.
When you sign a contract with your publisher, serial rights are among the items that both parties need to agree on. And remember, it’s something that is subject to negotiation, so don’t think that all you do is sign on the dotted line and accept whatever the publisher lays out!
Most publishers prefer to buy first-serial rights, especially on books that they believe will make it big. It may actually prove to be a win-win scenario, since some publishers believe that serial rights can help sell more books.
What is FNASR?
But, we recommend you to be more specific at the rights that you grant. For example, you might opt to grant them only the “First North American Serial Rights,” or FNASR. This means that you are granting them first serial rights only in North America. That way, you can still sell your first serial rights to other publishers working in other countries.
What happens after you sell FNASR? All copyright to your work reverts back to you! Isn’t that good news? After that, you can still sell Reprint Rights, First European Rights, First British Rights, Anthology Rights, and a few more.
Also, check if your publisher is only offering the print version. If so, you can grant them First Print Rights, saving the electronic rights for further down the road. In fact, we recommend you to keep electronic rights for the very last, because many publications will not purchase rights to a piece that already appeared on the Internet.
Why are first serial rights important?
Take a look at some of the world’s bestselling books that first appeared in magazines, and you will see just how much money the owner of the rights gains by it.
For example, Robert A. Caro’s “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” had its first five installments out in The Atlantic almost a year before the book came out. Family Circle, a popular women’s magazine in the pre-digital age, also managed to buy first-serial rights to “The Best of James Herriot.” Good Housekeeping likewise owns the first-serial rights to “Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth” written by Edward Epstein and Joe Morella.
Since magazines rarely publish fiction, novels are not as often sold for serial rights. However, Vanity Fair managed to acquire first serial rights for “Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” a novella by the now-bestselling author Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Maximizing First Serial Rights as an Author
Now that you understand the importance of first serial rights, we hope it equips you for finding the best deal to benefit your work. Also, take the time to understand all the different kinds of rights you have as an author, so that you can maximize your earnings from selling them off.
Remember, being an author is not just about writing; it’s also about being a good businessperson for the maximum potential impact of your book, so pay attention to the details!
Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- 21 Foreign Rights Agencies That Can Help You Sell More Books Abroad
- What Are Subsidiary Rights? What to Know Before You Sign a Publishing Contract
- 73: Copyrights and Law Every Author Should Know with Brock Shinen
- How to Convert Files From ePub to Mobi: Tips for Authors and Readers
Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.
