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Acquiring copyright

  • 19-08-2011 9:02am
    #1
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭


    ten years ago I wrote and published a book, which did not sell very well, largely due to poor marketing. Now I would like to have a second edition published, but my publisher seems reluctant, partially because he has a very limited budget.In hindsight I sold myself short, but was desperate to get published.

    He also has the copyright. Does anyone know if it is very expensive to buy the copyright from the publisher?

    The masterclass would be to acquire copyright and have it printed myself.


Comments

  • #2
    smcgiff
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    Fuinseog wrote: »
    . Does anyone know if it is very expensive to buy the copyright from the publisher?

    There's only one person that can answer that for you - the publisher.

    If they have no interest in the book they should have no problem passing back the copyright, unless that is THAT is their business model. But, giving them the benefit of the doubt they should hand it back if they don't want to publish it and it is out of print.

    Alternatively, and this would be unusual I imagine for a publisher in general, but you could offer to publish it yourself and give them 10% or so of sales.

    Bit ironic, but you can only play the cards you're dealt with.


  • #3
    EileenG
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,775 ✭✭✭EileenG


    Do you have your contract? Most contracts allow for the rights to revert to the author after a book has been out of print for X number of years. (with e-books, it usually means when they have sold less than X copies for the past number of years). It's very unusual for the publisher to retain copyright indefinitely for a book that's out of print.

    Actually, the copyright always belongs to you, unless you wrote it as part of your employment, but the right to publish it may still be with the printer.

    An alternative is to rewrite it. By now, you can probably see all sorts of glaring mistakes and outdated technology etc. It might be quicker and cheaper to rewrite the book completely.


  • #4
    yasminethakur
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭yasminethakur


    spam


  • #5
    bigsmokewriting
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 169 ✭✭bigsmokewriting


    Yep - as Eileen says, typically you'll still have copyright but the publisher will hold rights to publish it. Is the book definitely out of print? (Widely unavailable does not necessarily mean 'out of print' unfortunately.) Check what your contract says about what happens in that situation. If you wrote it as a work-for-hire then you may not have any rights with regard to republishing, unfortunately. It's still worth approaching them to see if you can buy the rights - as a starting point for figures, look at what you were paid the first time around and go from there.


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