Your Book Rights: Common Traps For New Authors

When you write a book, you own the book rights. With your rights, you decide when, where, and how your work is published.

Unless you have a very good reason, you should always retain full control over your manuscript.

However, if you are a new author, you might be tempted to use a publisher, and that’s where things can go wrong. In all the excitement of publishing a new book, you might miss a vital legal clause that affects your rights.

While self-publishing allows you to stay in control, traditional, small press, hybrid, and vanity publishers can all take different approaches regarding your rights to your book.

You own the rights to your book

Whenever you consider using a publisher, the most crucial decision is who will own the rights to your book.

Whether in part or whole, a major traditional publishing house will always want the rights before it agrees to publish it.

It may include rights for different international markets.

Sometimes, it’s film and TV rights for the publishing work.

Rights can also be assigned or not to different versions of a book, such as paperback, hardcover, audiobook, or ebook.

In some cases, a publisher may only want the rights to the print book version, allowing the author to retain the rights for ebooks.

Generally, if a publisher offers a book advance, it is logical to expect an author to agree to sign over the rights to a book.

However, advances are becoming a rarity in today’s publishing world, even for established, traditionally published authors.

Whenever an author writes a new book, they own the book rights and copyright for the book.

It’s so important for you to be extra careful with your rights and guard them. If you sign them away, they are gone forever.

Be aware of who pays

For new authors, the far more common occurrence is that a publishing company will demand the rights but offer no money in return.

Due to a lack of financial resources, some small publishers might ask for money from the author to cover part or even all of the publishing costs. However, a vanity publisher will always ask the author to pay.

It is definitely a warning signal, and new authors should consider this option very carefully.

Signing up with a publisher is an exciting time for new authors.

But signing away the rights to your book without knowing how financially sound a publisher is or checking how successful they have been can lead to serious problems down the line.

Almost every day, there is news of publishers going out of business, which is when trouble can strike.

If your publisher goes bankrupt or is liquidated, regaining your book rights could take years, and that may be optimistic.

What can you do to avoid making a mistake?

Generally speaking, if you are asked to sign over the rights to your book by your literary agent or publisher, and there is an advance on offer, consider it carefully.

It is about as good as it gets in publishing today.

However, if you are asked to sign over your book rights and intellectual property without an advance being offered to you, think carefully.

In the end, perhaps it’s best not to do it and try to find better options.

If a publisher wants the rights to your book and also asks you for money, definitely do not do it.

The advantage of self-publishing

Taking the self-published route is one way to ensure you retain all of your rights.

But perhaps you are not confident in the technical aspects of ebook and print-on-demand (POD) publishing or book promotion.

In this case, you might consider investing in service providers who can do this for you.

Yes, it will cost a little bit of money, but you will keep your rights and have total control over your book.

However, the best way is to learn to self-publish.

It might take some time, but once you gain some knowledge, you will find self-publishing is very easy.

Whichever route you take as a new author, remember one thing.

Never hand over the rights to your book for nothing in return.

Summary

Publishing a book is a very exciting time. But don’t let your guard down and forget about the legalities.

Your book rights are precious, so never let them go unless you receive something substantial in return. And even then, take care.

A new author has so many options today to publish a book, but they all come with pros and cons.

Whichever route you choose to take, always consider your rights as your property and protect them.

Related Reading: Is This Publisher Legit? How You Can Make Your Decision