Quote:
Originally Posted by avantman42
Ah, fair enough. I know nothing about publishing contracts, but I was under the impression that it was common in all the creative industries for the creator to sign over copyright when signing a deal.
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No. In most book contracts, the author holds the rights, and the contract licenses the publisher to produce an edition of the book in exchange for consideration. Exactly what rights the publisher gets and what the consideration is is a matter for negotiation. Hardcover and paperback rights are separate, as are ebook rights, foreign rights and subsidiary rights (like adaptation into a movie or TV show.)
The publisher
will hold the rights in work-for-hire contracts. A good example is novelizations of media properties, like Pocket Books Star Trek line. Paramount owns the property and holds the rights (and has final approval over the books). Writers doing Trek books are on work-for-hire contracts for specified fees. They'll get advances and royalties, but have no rights in the finished product. Similar rules hold for things like comics and games. The writers, artists, et al are are playing in someone else's sandbox. They get paid for what they do, but do not own the properties they are working on, and aren't likely to get a piece of the action.
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Dennis