Your Rights:
What They Mean and Why They are Important
by S.D. Yorston

For a beginning writer the topic of rights can be daunting and somewhat mystifying. What rights do I have to a story? What rights will an editor want to buy? Can I resell my rights? Who owns my story?

Last first. Who owns my story? Why, you do of course. You wrote it, slaved over it, made it perfect. It all belongs to you. No one else can use the story unless you let them.

What rights do I have to a story? Lots. Probably more than you can imagine. But if you're working in the article or short story market, the rights you'll most often come across will be First Serial Rights, First North American Serial Rights, Foreign Serial Rights (if you're submitting to foreign markets), One Time Rights, and Second Serial Rights. Some writers may come across Syndication Rights for series of connected articles or chapters of a novel when dealing with syndicated publications such as newspapers and magazines.

First Serial Rights: also called First North American Serial Rights. These basically say that the story or novel excerpt has not yet been published in any other newspaper or magazine. Most editors of magazines and newspapers work with FNASR in order to be able to distribute into Canada. You may come across First World Rights when dealing with an anthology. These basically give the editor the right to sell the story in foreign markets as well as in North America, for the first time. If you submit a previously published work to an anthology, you will have to let the editor know when and where the story first appeared and will be dealing with Foreign Serial Rights in connection with distribution of the anthology to a foreign market.

Foreign Serial Rights: These are usually used when reselling a story or novel excerpt into a foreign market. Again, be sure the editor knows where and when the story or article was first published.

One Time Rights: Most editors don't use these rights for stories or articles and they are usually attached to pictures that will appear with an article. However, that said, they can crop up in connection with Simultaneous Rights (see below). One Time Rights do not guarantee the editor that their magazine or publication will be the first to publish the work.

Simultaneous Rights: are used when you are submitting a work to several publications, which do not have overlapping circulations. For example: religious magazines. If a Catholic magazine likes a story of yours, they may purchase it knowing that the same story will be appearing in a Presbyterian magazine at the same time.

Second Serial Rights: also known as Reprint Rights. These are used to resell a piece that has already appeared in the same market, i.e.: Second North American Serial Rights, Third Foreign Serial Rights, etc.

Syndication Rights: are usually connected to novel excerpts that a publisher wishes to use to promote a book, or wishes to publish in a magazine over a period of time, such as a chapter a month in a syndicated market i.e.: syndicated news markets, etc.

Now for those who work in the novel business, when you receive your contract from the publisher, you'll run into Subsidiary Rights. These are the rights attached to an intellectual property other than book publishing rights. They can include translation rights, dramatic or movie rights, electronic rights, reprint rights and so on. You must be sure of what rights you are selling to the work and each must be clearly detailed in the contract. Here's where an agent comes in handy. They know what the rights are and how they should be negotiated. If in doubt, contact an agent or lawyer who specializes in contract law as it applies to intellectual property.

Dramatic, Television and Motion Picture Rights: are what they look like: rights attached to a property when translating it from the written form to a dramatic form. Usually an option on the property is offered (about 10% of the total price) for a period of one year. If the option isn't used, then the rights revert back to the author who can then sell it again to someone else. If the option is used, then a studio or network becomes a part of the project, a script is made and off you go to Hollywood.

When you are selling to any market, be very sure what rights you are giving up and what you're getting for them. Basically the negotiating process is a tug of war between you and editor (it should be an amicable tug of war though) where he or she tries to purchase as many rights as possible while you try to maintain as many of those as you can. For small press magazines, large press magazines, syndicated markets and anthology markets, the editor will have a set of rights they are looking for and negotiation will be limited.

Resources for Rights

• Writing World 

• A Novice Writer's Guide to Rights 

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© 2000 by S.D. Yorston

Shane Yorston is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in eastern Canada. To date, he's seen print in a few small press magazines in his home country and in the US. He most recently appeared in Divine Meat from Idol Press, an anthology of erotic mythology (ISBN: 0-352-33587-4, Published June 2001, Virgin Publishing).

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