A guide to book publishing rights
This is part of a series on demystifying traditional book publishing. There is so much I didn’t know about this world before I became a published author. I hope that sharing parts of my journey will give readers a look at what goes on behind the scenes and also help other authors who are new to the industry.
In September of 2020, I got the life-changing call. You know, the one all authors dream about. The one where your agent tells you that all the weekends spent rewriting and editing and pulling your hair out paid off: you have a book deal.
I still get chills thinking about it. HarperCollins Canada had pre-empted my debut novel and I was finally going to be a published author. After the initial excitement settled, I started letting everyone know. And part of letting people know was telling my family and friends who didn’t live in Canada that they wouldn’t be able to buy the book in their countries - yet.
This brings me to today’s topic: publishing rights. In this article, you’ll learn:
What publishing rights are
Why publishing rights matter
How publishing rights are sold
Why authors often have multiple publishers
Examples of different types of rights an author might be eligible for
How much authors can make from selling the rights to their work
Why you can keep selling rights long after your first book deal
What are publishing rights?
Publishing rights are just what they sound like: the right to publish an author’s work in a specific geographical territory, format and language. Every publisher has to purchase the rights to create books in a certain format (paperback, e-book, etc.) They also have to purchase the rights if they want to publish a novel in a different language.
For example: let’s say an editor at Penguin Random House in the US wanted to buy your book. They’ve contacted your agent and have offered to publish it in paperback, in English. If those were the terms of the deal, they’d be limited to publishing it only in one format (paperback) and language (English). If they wanted to publish an e-book, or publish it in German, that would require a separate deal.
Sometimes a publisher will buy something called ‘World Rights’. This means that they’ve likely paid more to have the right to publish the novel around the world. If this happens to you, then you may only have one publisher.
However, from what I’ve observed in the fiction market, it’s pretty common for rights to be sold separately. This means that most authors will end up with multiple book deals for the same book. And these deals can happen over many years, which can add to the confusion.
Why publishing rights matter
Publishing rights matter because they protect an author from illegal editions of their work being distributed. They’re also an additional income source - and sometimes, that income can add up to a lot.
One of the reasons I selected my agent was because she is also a Director of Foreign Rights. She’d built up years of experience negotiating and selling the rights to her authors’ works in foreign territories. Not every author is concerned about this and not every agent retains as many foreign rights as they can - but because my agent is very skilled in this arena, I wanted to sign with her. For me, it was important to have a chance to see my work reach different markets. Publishing puts so much emphasis on the US and the UK markets, but those are just 2 territories!
Some agencies don’t have an in-house rights department and will instead work with other agencies to sell them separately. And actually, some agencies do have rights departments but will still work with other agencies to sell rights.
I go into this a bit more in the next section, but the more opportunities and markets an author has to sell their work in, the more money they can make.
How publishing rights are sold
In traditional publishing, an author is represented by a literary agent. Getting a literary agent is a whole other process that I wrote about. Agents are the ones with the knowledge and relationships with editors at publishing houses. They’ll know, for example, which editors are looking for YA and which ones are seeking out crime stories. It’s their job to find the best editor and publishing house for your book.
Once your book is ready to go out to editors, you go on submission to different publishing houses. From there, it’s a big old waiting game. If you’re lucky, you get a pre-empt or multiple offers which you can leverage to potentially get a higher advance. Sometimes (this was my case) you won’t get any offers, or you’ll only get one. And then you have to decide if it’s what you want, or if you’d rather go back to the editing board or take it (I chose the latter).
No matter what happens, any publisher who makes an offer will do so for specific rights. In Canada, the UK, the US and Australia, the contracts usually ask for the right to publish the work in English. They’ll also ask for the right to publish in hardback (although this is becoming far less common - no one really buys hardbacks anymore), paperback, e-book and audio book. Each of these formats will have a different royalty percentage attached to it (you’ll get higher royalties for e-books because they retail for less than paperbacks, for example). And you’ll be given an advance against sales.
Your agent will likely negotiate some of the terms, but once you’ve all come to an agreement, that’s it.
Why authors have multiple publishers
One of the biggest myths about the submission process is that once a publishing house makes an offer, your book will be published by them everywhere.
I thought that selling my book to HarperCollins Canada meant every other HarperCollins office in the world (and there are several) would publish The Circus Train. But that’s not how it worked. Instead, I ended up with 17 different publishers (and counting).
So, what gives? Wouldn’t it just be easier for HarperCollins to own all the rights?
Yes and no. When your agent makes a list of who they want to submit your novel to, they’re thinking about the likes and wish-lists of each editor they’re planning to contact. At the time my book sold, there was an editor at HarperCollins Canada who really wanted it. But there wasn’t an editor at HarperCollins in the US or in the UK who wanted it. It’s less about the publishing house and more about an editor’s individual taste.
It is common for US publishers to take North American, or even World rights. But we didn’t have any offers from the US when I first went on submission. Canada made the first bet, so we only signed with them.
About 8 weeks after being on submission, Hachette in the UK made an offer to buy English world rights in multiple formats, excluding North America. This meant that they’d have the right to distribute the book in 4 different formats (paperback, hardback, e-book and audio book) all over the world in English, except for North America.
My agent would go on to negotiate and sell rights in multiple countries, formats and languages. Each time, we’d get another advance.
Examples of different types of publishing rights
There are many different types of rights in publishing. I’ve tried to list and define as many as I can:
Country/Continent rights
These rights grant a publisher the right to publish your work in a specific language (usually English) in a defined geographical territory. For example, perhaps you’re on submission and Simon and Schuster US makes an offer to take North American rights in English. This means they’ll release it in Canada and the US, in English, but don’t have permission to release it anywhere else.
Foreign rights
Publishers could also buy the right to publish your work in a different language, in a specific country or countries. For example, my agent sold my book to a French publisher, and they paid for the rights to publish it in French in France, but also in Quebec. That doesn’t conflict with the HarperCollins Canada deal because that was only for Canadian English.
TV/Film rights
This is a little more complicated, but sometimes authors will receive offers to buy the right to turn a book into a tv series or film. Usually what happens is a production company or producer will offer something known as an ‘option’ to your agent/you. It’s basically them buying the right to adapt your book for the screen for a set period of time.
There’s no hard and fast rule for how long options last, but most of my author and screenwriting friends say it’s 12-18 months. Sometimes production companies will renew options just to retain the rights to a story. I’ve heard of authors who’ve had books optioned for 10+ years, and they keep getting paid every year, but nothing happens.
Most books that get optioned will never make it to screen. Films and tv series are expensive to make and it’s not easy to find studio distribution. But, you can still make some extra dough while you’re waiting. Everyone always wants to know how much you can make, but it ranges widely. I honestly think options can go from one dollar to over a million.
Musical/Theatre/Radio rights
This is an often overlooked aspect of publishing. There are a handful of books that have their source material turned into stage plays, musicals and/or radio productions. This is a rights deal but I think where it differs is if the book is considered to be part of the public domain. If that’s the case, then anyone can take it and adapt it.
If you are an author and someone reaches out to you or your agent about adapting things for the stage or screen, it’s a really good idea to get a producer credit (or an executive producer credit). I think any good agent will try and do this, but if not, ask them to. Producers are usually the ones that make the most money in the long run. Unlike publishing, there are a lot of theatre and screen guilds and unions that stipulate how much producers are compensated. I used to work at a film and tv agency and have also dabbled in playwriting and musical writing - trust me when I say producers make a lot.
I’m sure there are options and rights deals out there for web series as well - there are just so many other avenues available to creatives wanting to tell stories.
Sub-rights
Sub-rights are when an existing publisher sells the rights to another publisher or company and you get a cut of the advance. This happened to me. There is a subscription service in the US called ‘Book of the Month’. They print their own copies of books every month and send them out to a very engaged list of subscribers, who pay a monthly fee.
My US publisher, Penguin Random House, sold The Circus Train rights to Book of the Month. This meant that they had the right to print the book in the format they wanted, with their logo. And because Book of the Month had recently launched in Canada, we actually did 2 deals. One in the US (through Penguin) and one in Canada (through HarperCollins).
My US publishers also sold my book to a large print publisher. And on that note…
Large Print rights
Yup - there is a market for books with large print. I have definitely borrowed a large print book or two from the library - my eyesight is terrible! I’m sharing this because it is another potential way to help you reach more readers and to make a bit of money.
As I said above, my US publishers sold the large print rights (I think to a publisher called Thorndike). And then the UK also sold the large print rights, which resulted in another deal.
How much can an author make selling publishing rights?
The answer to this question is the one no one wants to hear - it depends. Books can go to auction in any country. I’ve heard of books going to auction and selling for six figures in Germany, France, Brazil and so many other places. Plus, film rights can go for very high amounts.
But - there’s always a but.
The reason we hear about these deals is because they’re uncommon. It’s not normal for books to sell for six figures. I’ve done a handful of rights deals and they’ve been in the hundreds to thousands range. Not bad, to be sure, but once you factor in agent fees, taxes, foreign conversions and the time it takes to get paid (usually it takes about 8 months to 2 years from the time you sign), it’s not exactly money you can pay your mortgage with.
How long can I keep selling rights for?
This is my favourite question because I see so many authors putting so much emphasis on everything happening at once, or on being an overnight success. The truth is, nothing is as it seems online and these things often take so much longer than we realize.
Case in point: for The Circus Train, my agent sold the first round of foreign rights to Italy in October 2020. The latest sale was in April 2023, to Finland - that’s nearly 3 years apart! And we’ve done so many deals in between all that and it’s still being sent out to other potential buyers. Granted, not everything works out. We sold the rights to Greece but they cancelled the deal. I was pretty bummed about it, but luckily if a publisher decides not to print your book, you still get your advance.
I always tell writers that the great thing about having a book out is you never know what can happen once it’s published! I am of the mind that if you work hard and stay humble, good things will materialize.