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What Rights to Sell

It can get confusing out there, especially if you are a first time article writer. In general, here are your choices. First North American Serial Rights, First Rights, One-Time Rights, Reprint Rights (second rights), Electronic Rights, All Rights, Work for Hire. Now, let’s look at them one by one.

v First North American Serial Rights. This is the term I hear most often. The majority of magazines ask for First North American Serial Rights. This is also the favorite of many writers. I have yet to figure out why.

This means you grant a publication the right to print you material in Canada and the United States first before publishing anywhere else in North America. The publisher can’t publish this material outside of North America.

v First Rights. This means that a publication has the right to publish your article first before other publications. You can limit this if you like to First Serial Rights (to magazines only), first international rights, first electronic rights, or something similar.

v One-Time Rights. This is my favorite right. I use it almost exclusively for any magazine that pays under $1000 per article. This is especially useful for my trade journal markets where I often sell the same article a number of times to non-competing markets. It can also be used for regional city magazines, regional parenting magazines, regional senior magazines, juvenile religious magazines. University Alumni magazines, AAA state magazines, and newspapers…all with non-competing readership.

v Reprint Rights (second rights). Any sale after your first sale is under reprint rights and you can sell to more than one publication simultaneously. I never bother to use this. Everything I can do here is covered under one-time rights. Sometimes the original publisher will ask for credit for the material.

v Electronic Rights. Several court decisions have affirmed that a publication buying print rights is not buying electronic rights. Besides inclusion on a web site or in a newsletter, you can sell electronic rights for publication on a CD ROM or inclusion in an electronic data base. Many publications still insist if they buy your print manuscript they have a right to put it on their website. You should always negotiate. You won’t get a double fee but you should always get something extra for this.

v All Rights. The publication acquires all rights. This is getting worse. Many publications including the New York Times want all rights so they don’t have to pay extra for them later. The American Society of Authors and Journalists (ASJA) has been sounding the alarm about this loss of rights for some time. You have to make a decision if you are going under these terms or if you are going to keep your rights and sell them elsewhere.

ASJA maintains a contract watch where you can post your

experiences or find out what experiences others are having.

In most cases you do not want to sell all rights. If you feel you need

to sell to that publication, make sure you ask for additional

compensation.

v Work for Hire. This contract being offered more frequently, simply means you are writing for them as an employee and you lose all rights. The publication also has the right to edit, alter and reprint your material in any way they wish. Some major publications still insist on this. My advice: don’t sign one of these contract. I never have, and I never will.