Lesson 3: The Business Side of Things
Selling Rights to Your Work
Copyright information
You may not realize this, but your poems are copyrighted as soon as you write them down. Yes, you can fill out a form and pay a fee to register your copyright with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress, but it’s probably not necessary. It’s highly unlikely that anyone is going to steal your work.
While your work is copyrighted, it’s not necessary to indicate this on poems when you submit them. Editors already know that your work is automatically copyrighted. Including this information on work that you submit only makes you appear unprofessional.
You should be aware that there are a few things you cannot copyright. You cannot copyright ideas. You also cannot copyright titles or short slogans.
Even if you sell a poem to someone else, you still hold the copyright. The exception to this is work made for hire (see below).
First serial rights
This means the publisher purchasing your work has the right to be the first to publish it. First serial rights are usually purchased for a specific period of time and after that, you have the right to sell the piece to another publisher.
First serial rights are the most common to be acquired by publishers of poetry.
First North American serial rights
This is the same as first serial rights, except that these rights are limited only to North America.
One-time rights
This means the publisher has the right to publish the piece one time, and you are free to sell it to other publishers at the same time or at any later time.
Reprint rights
This means the publisher purchasing your work has the right to print a piece that has previously been published somewhere else.
Second serial rights
This is the same thing as reprint rights.
All rights
This means the publisher purchases all rights to your work. The publisher can publish it as many times as they like, and you cannot resell it to anyone else.
Electronic rights
This means the publisher has the right to put your work on the internet.
Work made for hire
This one is different than the other rights listed above. With the rights listed above, you hold the copyright and you initially own the rights which you can then sell. With work made for hire, the work belongs to the publisher or whoever hired you to write it. The copyright is held by the person or publication that commissioned the work. You never hold the copyright and you never own any rights to the work.
Work made for hire is generally work you do after you are hired to do it, rather than poems you write and later sell.
When granting someone permission to publish your work, make certain you understand exactly what rights you are giving up. Rights are always negotiable, so if an editor wants to buy all rights to one of your poems, you are free to negotiate to sell first serial rights only instead.
