Subsidiary Considerations: Merchandising and Other Rights - article

There is a host of rights associated with a book, many of which you may not even have thought of. I don’t want to call these rights minor, because if you write the next Harry Potter, your merchandising rights will not be minor. Your calendar rights will not be minor. Maybe a saying or character from your book would look good on a greeting card. If you happen to have the rights to the character Waldo, you’re going to make a lot of money. And then of course there are video games, and anthologies—someone might want to use a portion of your book or a story from your book in another collection. Digital rights and electronic rights are growing and evolving in many new ways. If you’re an authority on polar bears or pillow making, someone is going to want to use your material on a website, and there’s a way of licensing that too. If you have a publishing contract, you will notice that braille rights are always included with serial rights, and you’ll never make any money from that. As a condition for publishing almost any book, you have to agree that if a braille association wants to produce a braille version of that book, they have your permission to do it.

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  • Thanks very much for your great information regarding Subsidiary consideration of getting the right consultant in publishing my books. There is a lot can be done to avhive my gold.. You speak about large print, games for children, story books. Wonderful information, I was thinking even other language. Thanks again. God bless.