I was thinking about rights today, did a little googling, and found this article written last year.
rights
It emphasizes why it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the reversion clause of your contract. I have 13 books that have reverted back to me, but it didn’t happen without diligence. Some contracts stated that rights would revert seven years after the book was out of print. For others, it was only three or four years. So I had to keep track of the approximate date the books went out of print. Which happened to be almost immediately for most of them. :D Once the time period was up, letters requesting the reversion of rights were sent to the various publishers. For some, this process took months and required several signatures. Others went fairly quickly. I think one publisher signed off early.
I have no plans for the books. I haven’t made any attempt to sell them to another publisher. But I like the idea that they are once again mine and in my control. I prefer to have them languish and grow old at my house rather than at a publishing house.
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4 comments:
This is interesting, Anne, thanks! It's great that you have your rights back on the books. You never know what could happen with them in the future. =)
I agree with Kelly too.. BUT it sure would be nice to find some of these old books of yours.. I have a list of all of em ;) and search in the used bookstores all the time.. to no avail. I really want to read your early stuff. (even if it ain't my cup of tea)
you probably wouldn't be able to find the original amazon lily paperback with its amazing morgan kane cover. at one time, it was going for $100. i sometimes see AL listed as an original, but it's usually the 1994 reprint. pocket released it in 1988, the rights reverted back to me 4 years later. i then sold it to bantam who reprinted in it 1994 with the ugliest cover i've ever seen, then the rights reverted back to me again a few years ago. once it was reprinted, the originals lost their value. of course, writers never see any income from those sales.
Mmm... so what?
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