Rights for writers — tips

If you’re a new writer, you’re probably confused about how rights to your writing work.

In a nutshell: you keep all rights to your work, unless you sell them. Actually, you don’t sell them as much as you license them…

Except in one case.

When someone hires you to write, you DO lose all rights, because you become an employee of that entity. In this case, your writing is “work done for hire” and all the rights belong to the entity which hired you.

So if you accept a writing job on one of the outsourcing sites, the copyright passes to that entity on payment. (Payment in full.) Once you’re paid in full, all rights pass to the entity which hired you.

OTOH, if you’re blogging, or writing for a Web site or magazine and you’ve been commissioned, you only sell the rights the buyer wants to buy. So a magazine might buy First North American Serial Rights, and a Web site might buy electronic rights for one month. All other rights remain with you.

When you’re commissioned therefore, pay close attention to the contract you sign. Last year I wrote a post called “When to give up all rights: never, unless the pay’s great”.

I hope this helps you if you’re confused about rights. It’s a big, confusing topic I know. Sooner or later, you WILL get caught, and will be cheated out of rights you should have kept. It’s inevitable. Don’t worry about it too much.

Losing rights is not the end of the world. It almost happened to me once, with a very large and reputable publisher, when the editor tried to sneak a rights grab past me. She didn’t succeed, but I was shocked that a publishing house I considered reputable would try it. Live and learn.

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