Commentary

The Rights Provisions of a Book Publishing Contract

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Abstract

When signing a publishing contract, an author makes decisions which directly affect the book's availability. In order to decide judiciously which rights to retain and which to transfer to a publisher, she needs an understanding of U.S. copyright law and the author-publisher partnership. In this article, Melody Herr, PhD, a scholarly communications professional who has over 16 years of experience in academic publishing and who has authored six books herself, explains the rights provisions of a book contract. First, she discusses copyright ownership and describes the ways in which copyright's components apply to scholarly books. After enumerating the benefits and drawbacks of allocating specific rights to a publisher, she highlights contract wording to watch for and suggests the rights an author may wish to retain by negotiating an addendum. She then explains how an author may reclaim rights granted to a publisher through reversion or termination of transfer. In the conclusion, she recommends that outreach programs target scholars at critical moments when they face decisions regarding publication of their work.

Keywords: copyright, author's rights, book contract, scholarly publishing, publishing contract

How to Cite:

Herr, M., (2018) “The Rights Provisions of a Book Publishing Contract”, Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 6(1), eP2273. doi: https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2273