Dan’s Writing Blog

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Most creative writers are so eager to sell their work that they don’t stop to consider what rights they are selling. The word “Rights” indicates how the buyer can use your work. “Rights” does not refer to anything pertaining to your copyright or what you can get paid for your document.

The most common rights is First North American Serial Rights, or FNASR. After the buyer publishes the story one time in North America, the author once again retains the rights to it. When you’re offering these rights, place “Offering First North American Serial Rights” in the top left hand corner of the document.

One Time Serial Rights – When you offer your story or article for simultaneous submissions, place “One Time Serial Rights” in the top, left corner. This grants the first magazine that snaps up your work the right to publish your story or article one time.

· Second Serial Rights – If you have previously sold the story or article, you will be offering Second Serial Rights to the next magazine. This means they will be able to publish your work only once.

All Rights – If you are developing a course for a school or some such thing, no big deal; but normally you would shudder at the sight of these rights. It means that whoever bought your work has all the rights to it. The rights go to the buyer and never revert back to you. Your rights are gone – period.

· Work for Hire – This is another “right” that you should shiver at. Work for Hire exists only two ways: An employer pays you a wage and you create the document at work (and he owns the rights) or you sell your rights as an independent contractor.

Non-Exclusive Rights is another undesirable. Although the “rights” revert back to you after one year and you can sell it again, the original buyer can continue to use the work and reproduce it in syndication without sharing the profits.

Exclusive Rights – If you sign away these rights, you just gave the farm away. Some places assume full rights when you submit your work – such as Associated Content. The rights go to them and never revert back to you. Your document is gone. Ker-plunk! Down the commode.

· One-time rights – You can sell one time rights simultaneously to as many people as you want. Columnists often use this right to sell to multiple markets.

As you can see, there is only the difference of a hair’s breadth on some of these rights. Hang onto this article and refer back to it before you sign anything!

There is a variety of rights, but these are the more common ones.