Copyright Simplified
First and foremost, let's recap what we discussed in an earlier blog entry titled Protecting Your Copyright by explaining exactly what copyright is. Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary describes copyright as:
Noun
The exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work)
As the original creator of your manuscript, you own 100% of all the rights to reproduce, publish, sell, and/or distribute your words in whatever manner you see fit. Your manuscript belongs to you and you only from the moment you write it.
Now you've decided you want to publish that manuscript into book format with the hopes you'll earn some money (or educate people, or entertain people, or whatever your personal reasoning for publishing it). There are a few different routes you might take toward having your book published, and each of these book publishing methods affects your copyright ownership a little differently.
Some authors will submit their manuscripts to a traditional (trade) publisher for consideration in the hopes it will be published free of charge to them. What they may not realize is that whoever is paying for the publication of a book is the one who owns the primary rights to that book. Trade book publishers don't agree to pick up the bill simply out of the kindness of their hearts. They are business people who are buying a product to try to turn a profit for themselves, and that "product" is the primary copyright ownership of your manuscript. In this business model, writers retain only basic "publishing rights" that recognize them as the author of the book and pay them a small percentage of the retail price in royalties (usually only up to 10% per copy sold). The trade publisher keeps the rest because the trade publisher owns the book. And, as the owner of the book, that trade publisher also reserves the right to sell off additional rights for additional profit down the road.
Authors who choose the vanity publishing route usually retain 100% ownership of their written words; however, if the vanity publisher has produced the cover artwork for them, the vanity publisher usually (nine times out of 10) retains the rights to that artwork. This means authors must always go through the vanity publisher to have their marketing materials and books printed.
A contract with a vanity publisher will usually also give that publisher "non-exclusive online distribution rights" throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and possibly even Asia. All this means is that the publisher reserves the right to sell/distribute copies of the book through their online channels (i.e. Amazon.com) for the duration of the contract; however, because it is a "non-exclusive" contract, the author (and any other distributor designated by the author) is also free to sell copies of the book within those regions, too. If it was an "exclusive" contract, then that publisher would be the only one allowed to sell the book online within those regions.
Last but not least, authors can also choose to publish through a supportive self-publishing house like PPG where they will retain 100% copyright ownership of both their words and their artwork. That said, much like the contracts with vanity publishers, a contract with a supportive self-publishing house will also include "non-exclusive online distribution rights" throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and possibly even Asia for a specified term. This gives authors much greater exposure worldwide without limiting their ability to sell wholesale author copies on their own.
For a more detailed comparison of these three book publishing models, click here.
Eventually, once you're selling lots of books and making a name for yourself with the general population, you'll begin to see the true value of retaining majority copyright ownership ... because this is when more business people will come knocking and asking to buy additional rights to your book. Maybe someone in Europe will want to purchase the "exclusive French language rights" to your title so he or she can be the only one to reproduce, print, and distribute it in French to the Francophone population for a profit. Maybe others will want to buy the "exclusive North American film rights" so they can adapt the book for film in this region. You can divvy up the rights to a book in so many different ways, it would be impossible to list them all here. But this gives you a very basic idea.
What are all these rights worth? In any industry, a thing is worth what someone will pay for it. It could be worth millions to the primary owner of the book, so it's a good idea to retain as much of that ownership as you can right from the start. And then, when the movie producers and foreign publishers start calling, hire a copyright lawyer to help you determine the best price for each sale of rights.
PPG is a Canadian book publisher dedicated to serving Canadian authors. Visit our book publishing website to learn how you can publish your book today.
Noun
The exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work)
As the original creator of your manuscript, you own 100% of all the rights to reproduce, publish, sell, and/or distribute your words in whatever manner you see fit. Your manuscript belongs to you and you only from the moment you write it.
Now you've decided you want to publish that manuscript into book format with the hopes you'll earn some money (or educate people, or entertain people, or whatever your personal reasoning for publishing it). There are a few different routes you might take toward having your book published, and each of these book publishing methods affects your copyright ownership a little differently.
Some authors will submit their manuscripts to a traditional (trade) publisher for consideration in the hopes it will be published free of charge to them. What they may not realize is that whoever is paying for the publication of a book is the one who owns the primary rights to that book. Trade book publishers don't agree to pick up the bill simply out of the kindness of their hearts. They are business people who are buying a product to try to turn a profit for themselves, and that "product" is the primary copyright ownership of your manuscript. In this business model, writers retain only basic "publishing rights" that recognize them as the author of the book and pay them a small percentage of the retail price in royalties (usually only up to 10% per copy sold). The trade publisher keeps the rest because the trade publisher owns the book. And, as the owner of the book, that trade publisher also reserves the right to sell off additional rights for additional profit down the road.Authors who choose the vanity publishing route usually retain 100% ownership of their written words; however, if the vanity publisher has produced the cover artwork for them, the vanity publisher usually (nine times out of 10) retains the rights to that artwork. This means authors must always go through the vanity publisher to have their marketing materials and books printed.A contract with a vanity publisher will usually also give that publisher "non-exclusive online distribution rights" throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and possibly even Asia. All this means is that the publisher reserves the right to sell/distribute copies of the book through their online channels (i.e. Amazon.com) for the duration of the contract; however, because it is a "non-exclusive" contract, the author (and any other distributor designated by the author) is also free to sell copies of the book within those regions, too. If it was an "exclusive" contract, then that publisher would be the only one allowed to sell the book online within those regions.
Last but not least, authors can also choose to publish through a supportive self-publishing house like PPG where they will retain 100% copyright ownership of both their words and their artwork. That said, much like the contracts with vanity publishers, a contract with a supportive self-publishing house will also include "non-exclusive online distribution rights" throughout North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and possibly even Asia for a specified term. This gives authors much greater exposure worldwide without limiting their ability to sell wholesale author copies on their own.For a more detailed comparison of these three book publishing models, click here.
Eventually, once you're selling lots of books and making a name for yourself with the general population, you'll begin to see the true value of retaining majority copyright ownership ... because this is when more business people will come knocking and asking to buy additional rights to your book. Maybe someone in Europe will want to purchase the "exclusive French language rights" to your title so he or she can be the only one to reproduce, print, and distribute it in French to the Francophone population for a profit. Maybe others will want to buy the "exclusive North American film rights" so they can adapt the book for film in this region. You can divvy up the rights to a book in so many different ways, it would be impossible to list them all here. But this gives you a very basic idea.
What are all these rights worth? In any industry, a thing is worth what someone will pay for it. It could be worth millions to the primary owner of the book, so it's a good idea to retain as much of that ownership as you can right from the start. And then, when the movie producers and foreign publishers start calling, hire a copyright lawyer to help you determine the best price for each sale of rights.
PPG is a Canadian book publisher dedicated to serving Canadian authors. Visit our book publishing website to learn how you can publish your book today.
Here's one more important tip for new authors:
When you are researching book publishers to determine the best one for you, take a look at the name that is written beside the copyright symbol on the copyright page of any of their previously published books. If the author's name is listed there, then the author has retained primary copyright ownership of his or her book. But if the publisher's name is listed there, then the publisher is now the primary copyright owner of the book. This will give you a good indication of whether or not you will retain/lose primary ownership of your copyright when entering into a contract with this particular publisher.
As the primary copyright owner, that person or organization is the one who calls the shots regarding that book. And whoever calls the shots reserves the right to sell off additional rights for additional profit down the road (for the duration of the publishing contract). That’s a fact.
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This is only partly true: sometimes a publisher may put its name on a collective work, while the authors of the individual pieces may retain their separate copyrights; sometimes a publisher may claim the copyright (the bundle of rights in a work) while allowing the author to retain some of those rights; sometimes the publisher will allow the writer to retain the copyright while requiring the assignment of virtually all of the rights in a work. And sometimes rights granted can lapse or will be reverted.
It is all in understanding the contract-- and just because you, as a writer, work with words, does not mean that you understand the implication of those words to a lawyer.
Do keep in mind, however, that this is not a job for your cousin the real estate lawyer. Publishing and copyright and related intellectual property fields are not subjects with which most lawyers are familiar. As with medicine, you need to go to the right practitioner.
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As a copyright and publishing lawyer, I found this post to be only partially correct. I think one needs to be very careful when generalizing as this post does.
First of all, Canadian and U.S. Copyright are not precisely the same, although both countries are signatory to the Berne Convention and thus their copyright laws share similarities.
Second, while copyright does in fact encompass all the rights an author has in an original work of authorship (watch that originality requirement--using the works of others, even as illustrations, may require rights assignments from them!), traditional publishers do not necessarily take ALL the rights. ANY book contract, like any contract, should be reviewed before you enter into it. Most traditional publishers will relinquish many of the rights, such as sequel rights, serial (periodical) rights, even movie rights, depending on their contract and their plans for the book. And even when they don't do so, RIGHTS AND ROYALTIES ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
Traditional publishers pay you for the privilege of publishing your book. They may give you an advance against the royalties your book will earn. You won't have to spend another penny-- and if the book doesn't "earn out" the advance, you still get to keep it.
Most attorneys charge an hourly rate in the hundreds, and review of a publishing contract usually can be done in one to two hours. Negotiating a contract can take more time, but it is the smaller publishers who often force extended negotiations because they don't have an attorney on retainer and are afraid to change so much as a comma on a contract they have "borrowed" from another publisher.
There are many places a writer can go to learn about copyrights and authors' rights. For U.S. law, the website of the Copyright Office (copyright.gov) has a lot of information; those who find this intimidating can read a book like my "Every Writer's Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law" (Henry Holt brought out the 3rd edition in 2004). If you educate yourself, you can ask more intelligent questions of your lawyer and cut down on the time needed to explain the basics.
I think writers should always check out traditional publishers before they go the self-publishing route unless they have specific reasons for not doing so. Here are some of those reasons I consider valid: you are writing poetry (chapbooks are traditional for poets, and most major publishers don't publish poetry); your work has a very limited potential audience, like a history of your (not so famous) family, or a guide to the best restaurants in your small town; you are a speaker and can sell books in the back of the room; you want to use the book to attract customers to your other business; or you are dying and can't wait for a risk publisher to accept and publish your book.
The point is, copyright can be more complicated than this post indicates, and so can book contracts.
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Hi Ellen,
First and foremost, thank you for agreeing to post a reply on our blog. I know our writers will greatly appreciate hearing from a seasoned lawyer regarding copyright.
This blog entry was intended to be exactly what the title implies: "copyright simplified ." If there is one thing I want all authors to take away from this blog entry, it is, "KEEP YOUR RIGHTS!" Make sure you read your publishing contracts so you understand what you're keeping and what you're signing away. (And be wary of contracts filled with a bunch of confusing legalese that is difficult to understand.)
Last but not least, in direct reference to Ellen's line that reads "...while copyright does in fact encompass all the rights an author has in an original work of authorship (watch that originality requirement--using the works of others, even as illustrations, may require rights assignments from them!)..." PPG's contracts ensure that the full book—from all cover artwork to the entire interior—belongs to the paying author in the end. 100% copyright ownership of the whole end product stays with the author. This is indicated in our author contract, and it is also indicated in our vendor contracts with our designers. PPG will only employ artists who agree with this policy and are willing to let the copyright of the cover go to the rightful owner—the paying author. For an explanation as to why we have this policy, please refer to our blog entry titled Who Owns the Artwork?
Again, thank you for sharing your expertise with our readers, Ellen. While I strongly disagree with your stance as to which route authors should automatically check out first, I do appreciate your willingness to help our readers better understand copyright law.
Warm regards,
Kim S.
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Kim,
While this may be true with artists whose work you commission, it may not apply to art or photographs the author has obtained from other sources. If something is in the public domain, like the Mona Lisa, it may be enough to credit the artist-- but when you are using photographs, under U.S. law, the copyright belongs to the photographer-- or his or her heirs. But even more is involved-- persons depicted in the photos may have a right of privacy, which you do not have the right to invade by publishing a photo of them.
Another complication may occur when you want to quote song lyrics in a manuscript. If the song is protected by copyright, it may be an infringement to use those lyrics without permission.
In the U.S., works of the Federal government are in the public domain and may be used-- but works of state or municipal governments are not automatically in the public domain-- and a public domain work that illegally uses a copyrighted work may still subject you to infringement penalties. And in Canada, government works are protected by crown copyright (one of the differences between U.S. and Canadian law).
Do not assume that you have permission to use someone else's work unless you know it is in the public domain or know that the copyright holder (who may not be the artist) has transferred the appropriate rights to you.
Oh-- one more thing: it is possible, using an appropriate written agreement, to license rights without transferring ownership of the entire copyright. Copyrights are infinitely divisible. So you can transfer English language print book rights in North America for a limited period of three years, for example, and retain all the rest of the rights. At the end of three years, that grant terminates. French rights are not transferred by that assignment, nor are electronic book rights (or magazine rights). And South American English language book rights can still be sold.
So it is all in the negotiation of the contract, and in what it grants in the end.
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Re: "While this may be true with artists whose work you commission, it may not apply to art or photographs the author has obtained from other sources. If something is in the public domain, like the Mona Lisa, it may be enough to credit the artist-- but when you are using photographs, under U.S. law, the copyright belongs to the photographer-- or his or her heirs..."
Agreed. And we cover this in our author contract to make sure they understand this and obtain all the necessary permissions for whatever artwork they're using. The onus is on them, as self-publishing authors who retain 100% copyright ownership of their books, to ensure they have dotted their "i"s and crossed their "t"s in this regard.
I’m on the run here … but I will have a closer look at your reply later tonight or tomorrow and may write more comments then.
Thanks again for your thoughts. Hope you're enjoying your evening.
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