What You Need to Know about Traditional Publishing Rights

Three Kinds of Rights You Should Retain When You Sign a Traditional Publishing Contract

A widely-shared post by a “traditional publishing is dead!” evangelist would have you believe that the moment you sign a contract with a publisher, you surrender “creative control” of your book. The writer shares an example of a YA author whose book was made into a Netflix series without his knowledge or consent, and without financial renumeration.

Obviously, that’s a terrible story, and you don’t want that to happen to you. But this cautionary tale is the unfortunate result of an author signing a very bad contract. A good contract offers serious protections and plenty of creative control to the author.

One of the most important parts of the traditional publishing contract is subsidiary rights. These rights often earn more for the author than the original publisher’s advance. In this post, I’ll share which rights you shouldn’t sign over to a traditional publisher, if you can help it.

If you like this post, you might also enjoy Two Writers on Finding a Literary Agent (free to read) and What Publishers Do for Authors.

A caveat: this is my personal opinion, based on a twenty-year publishing career. I am not an attorney or agent, but I do have a very good agent who has sold rights to my books in 31 languages. The traditional-publishing naysayers will tell you that only big-name authors with enormous advances sell rights in other countries, but this simply isn’t true. My agent has sold foreign rights not only for my bestselling books, but also for quiet literary novels that received only a small advance in the US. My novels have been optioned for film and television and have been licensed by national book clubs, audiobook publishers, and big box retailers. My ability to make a living as a writer has hinged largely on these rights.

Subsidiary rights often earn more for the author than the original publisher’s advance; that’s why you want to keep them.

A second caveat: you should never sign a contract with the Big 4 without having a literary agent as intermediary. If you’re publishing traditionally, you almost certainly already have an agent. The agent’s job, in addition to finding a publisher for your book, is to negotiate a good contract. A good agent is the best partner you will ever have in your literary career, and my advice can in no way take the place of an agent’s advice. The agent can’t work miracles, and she can’t get a publisher that pays small advances to pay giant advances. However, there are certain things a good agent will fight for.

Repeat after me: A good contract is not all about the advance.