In the previous two episodes, I blogged about:

Length of rights
Right of first refusal

from various publishers I’ve dealt with. Not an extensive list, but entertaining enough.

Subsidiary rights are rights that fall out of the original (usually) print rights. These are things like book club editions, serialisations, reprints, movies, television deals, and so on.

Some publishers don’t have Subsidiary Rights clauses at all, so if I bump into Spielberg one night, I’m free to offer him one of those stories and rake in the millions, baby! Yeah, right.

Others are a bit coy, but generally the majority of the cut belongs to the author. Paraphrasing another publisher’s contract, this is their split:

Motion Picture – 70% Author / 30% Publisher
Dramatic Stage Play Adaptation & Performance – 70 / 30
Television – 70 / 30
Radio – 70 / 30

You may wonder if the above publisher even deserves thirty percent for something YOU slogged over but, hey, it’s a livable compromise. Until we come to our good pals at AC-Pub who have to take it one step further and rub it in at the same time. This is their clause under “Subsidiary rights”:

Publisher shall have the exclusive, worldwide right, at Publisher’s option, to sell or license the rights in the Work indicated below upon such terms as the Publisher deems advisable to domestic or foreign accounts. Author retains no right of approval for such sales to commence or cease. [did you like that sentence? rofl] The proceeds received by Publisher from the sale or license of such rights shall be divided between Author and Publisher 50/50 respectively.

Riiiiiggghhhhttt. All they did was publish a book I wrote, but they’re still entitled to fifty percent of the spin-off take AND I have no say whatsoever in any discussions associated with my book. Such an ethical mob. Next week, how about some out-of-print considerations and praying for bankruptcy (for them, not me)?