Publishing Rights, Distribution Rights, Copyright & the Public Domain
The Publishing Process & Different RIGHTS
If you are an author and wish to get your book published, you must know about specific types of rights. These are Copyright, Publishing Rights, Distribution Rights, and Marketing Rights.
As the creator, you possess the copyright. However, if you involve an artist or a co-writer or any contributor, you may share the credits with them. But this is subject to the type of negotiation and agreement you have done with the contributors. Thus, you can enter into an agreement to buy them out without credits too. We always recommend giving the credits.
Prior to starting out on the different types of Rights, I will brief on a few important terms. a. Publisher/ Publishing Company or House: An entity or organization concerned with publishing. The main step in a publishing process is the issuance of separate ISBNs to different versions of a book viz. ebook, Print Book, Audio Book, and AudioVisual Book for International distribution. Publishing also includes editing, proofreading, book setting, cover page designing, e.t.c. A publisher can also be involved in the printing, distribution, and marketing of books for its own purpose. b. Printing Press: An entity or organization involved in the printing of books. Most publishers get their books printed from printing presses. c. Distributor/ Distribution Agency or Company or Platform: An entity or organization or platform which deals with the distribution of books. d. Publishing Platform: It mainly applies to eBooks and refers to a specially designed platform where publishers or Authors can list and distribute one particular version of an ebook; for example, Amazon Kindle is concerned only with the Kindle ebook version. Such platforms do not issue ISBN or provide options for editing, proofreading, e.t.c. Examples are Amazon Kindle, Google Play Book, Apple Books, e.t.c. e. Marketing Agency or Company: An entity or organization that deals in physical/ traditional or digital marketing.
Copyright
Copyright can be obtained by applying to a designated copyrighting agency in the country of citizenship of one of the writers or contributors or the country of registration of the publisher (may not be allowed in some countries) by paying the necessary fee.
If you do not apply for copyright but possess a non-manipulatable record or precisely digital record of your work, you will still be able to sue an individual or entity for theft of your work. The legal battle will however take a bit longer. Copyright is both a certificate and evidence whereas a digital record is a piece of evidence.
The copyright term varies from country to country. The maximum is 110-120 years, which may change in the future. After the expiry of this term, work will go into the PUBLIC DOMAIN. Thereafter, anyone can copy, recreate, or reproduce the work without permission from its creators.
Will a Copyright issued in one country be valid all over the Globe?
The copyright issued in a country will be respected by all the countries that have signed the “Berne Convention.”
Read More on the Berne Convention
See the list of countries in the Berne Convention
FAQ:
a. I possess the copyright as the creator then why do I need to worry about the printing or other rights?
Ans: The copyright in fact refers to intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work. As long as an author has not entered into an agreement with anybody, he is the sole owner of his book and all its rights. But as soon as an author enters into an agreement with a publisher or filmmaker or any such person or entity, other rights automatically come into question which is in keeping with the agreement; thereafter, the author, just because he owns the copyright, cannot enter into an agreement with another entity or person without concerning the former.
As a general rule, for regular or traditional or sponsored publishing (mainly those with high sponsorships) the publisher claims the distribution, printing, and rights for other versions, with the marketing/ advertising rights being arbitrary. If a filmmaker approaches an author for an unpublished book or story and is ready to make a movie on it, then he claims only the AudioVisual and its Distribution Rights and is not bothered with the other versions like print; but if a filmmaker approaches an author for a published book or story, the publisher must also be concerned along with the Author.
The Publishing Process and Publishing Rights
If you are publishing your own book you will hold the publishing rights. But publishing requires a technical understanding mainly in ‘setting’ the book in a couple of professional software for its different format.
Though you may learn to use such software. But the process is time-consuming. Besides some of this software is costly. But if you have an option you can go for it. The next hurdle in publishing is grammatical editing and proofreading. To be honest, nowadays there are applications for this job. However, the first issue with these tools is that 45% of the time, they show false-negative results and bogus suggestions or improvement tips that may not go well with the message you wish to portray, which can be tricky if you do not have the required skill in grammar. The second issue is that these tools cannot work on advanced editing and will not be helpful in case your content requires serious improvements in the composition.
Distribution Rights
An author cannot distribute the book himself on a large scale as the process will require having a business organization with a valid tax id.
If you are going with a publisher, they will take care of the hurdles in the process, including assistance in obtaining copyright as well as the distribution. However, if you have published a book on your own, you have to approach a publisher or distribution agency for its circulation ultimately. We always recommend a publisher over a distribution agency as they will understand the temperament better.
Marketing & Advertising
The next catch is with marketing. The distribution agency or publisher will not market your book until the book reaches an all-time high sales statistics itself. One reason why still many writers go after hyped publishers with some even paying for this is not that the big publishers do the marketing but only an ‘ideology,’ that the publisher’s hype will give added value to their book and make them sell. I call that an ideology because a good book always sells sooner or later, irrespective of the publisher, but takes a lot of time, at times a decade.
But, after 2018, digital publishing and media started to tighten their market grip. It is obvious that in the next 5 to 10 years i.e. by 2025- 2030, print publishing will become ‘seriously diminished.’
With this new trend, awareness spreads fast and vast. The hype of the publisher cannot benefit a book anymore. The success of a book now depends on only two factors (i) the quality of the content, and, (ii) the presentation to the public. Thus, the publisher has now a big role to play in guiding the writers for improvements and dedicating their time to spread awareness among the readers through digital media and marketing. In this age, you should choose a publisher who will put the dedication and act with responsibility and not a hyped one. You must not be taken in for a ‘higher share in royalty’ as well.
The Fact About Marketing Strategies
One thing that has still not changed; that is the publisher will not market your book until they see its growth. You cannot blame a publisher for this. There is a valid reason; let us take an example. Say a publisher publishes 500 books in a year. With this number of published books, as a general formula, 25-50 books will sell well, and only 1 or 2 books may become best sellers. So, if a publisher goes for marketing all the 500 books, the loss from the failure of 400 to 450 will be so high which the success of the 50 books cannot neutralize. This will bring the downfall of the publisher within 2-3 years.
But in recent times, one positive thing has happened that is with the end-of-life for traditional marketing, as digital advertising takes the lead, advertisement has become 50 times cheaper; this enabled many authors to go for marketing the books on their own with calculated investments.
The Marketing & Advertising Rights
Now let me discuss marketing rights. You might have published your book through a publisher or yourself, but wish to go with a marketing agency for its promotion, you will then have to grant them the marketing rights.
Final Comments
The copyright is with the creator(s) and contributor(s). If a member of the publisher is also a contributor, he may join the copyright as well.
The printing, publishing and distribution rights for all versions are claimed by the publisher, which he can share or lease to another party or publisher. You cannot publish or distribute the book yourself or engage another party for the same whatsoever without concerning your existing publisher unless there is an ‘exceptional clause’ in the agreement.
Exceptional clauses are contrasting conditions to the ones that generally exists. You will never be allowed to introduce an ‘exceptional clause’ unless you are already a bestselling author or you have Self-Published without any sponsorship.
The marketing rights are generally liberal, and even when you have proceeded with a publisher, he puts no restriction on it. Hence, you may engage an agency for marketing or do it yourself as well; you should however read your agreement for more clarification.
In the present scenario, i.e. the diminishing market of traditional or print publishing and old advertising techniques, and the rise of digital publishing and marketing, a wise decision will be to choose a responsible and dedicated ‘publisher,’ and go for digital publishing and digital marketing.
© 2020, Mage Orange Publication.
Copyright reserved with the respective authors, co-authors & contributors. All ‘Publishing Rights’ reserved with ‘Mage Orange Publication & Technologies.’
The above content is an ‘extract’ from the ‘Mage Orange Publishing & Digital Marketing Magazine 2020.’ Any part of this article cannot be published, reproduced, or copied in any form whatsoever, without the permission of the publisher.
