Question about short story rights

[Arch Stanton]

Recently a friend received a contract for a short story (anthology), and wanted me to go over it. Unfortunately I'm clueless when it comes to legal jargon.

I was hoping someone here could let me know what rights my friend is giving away with this short story. Thanks for any comments. Here is the part of the contract under question:

The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher, One time exclusive rights to publish the story included in the above mentioned book and the Publisher shall retain rights of printing the story five years from the date of publication. The same rights are given for a Kindle edition. Podcasting rights are also given for the five year period. If after the five year contract the Publisher and Author agree, printing of the story in the Anthology will continue.

Copyright of the book as a whole is to remain with the publisher for the first five years.
Author will list “Generic Magazine” as the original publisher should he/she have the story reprinted. Prior permission from the publisher is required before reprinting of above story.


All subsidiary rights are clearly with the author, which is good, but I'm slightly unsettled by the language in bold. Perhaps I shouldn't be.

Thanks for any pointers.

[izanobu]

After the rights revert, I'm not sure that there's grounds for asking for permission. Once the author has the rights back, they are his to do with as he wishes. So that seems off to me.
In the contracts I've signed for short stories, I've never seen anything like that "permission for reprinting" clause. Otherwise it looks fine (though 5 years is longer than any of mine have asked for, but I've never sold to an anthology and that might be standard/suitable for anthologies).

[Arch Stanton]

Izanobu -

Thanks for the comment. What scared me was "request permission for reprint" in the copyright section, and that the publisher claims copyright of the book for the first five years.

It's almost like the author is giving away the copyright here, which is why I'm confused.

[Stijn Hommes]

Well, obviously if you give them exclusive rights, then asking for permission before you reprint during that time is obvious. There aren't any obvious red flags, but I'd still be hesitant to sign this one. Does your friend really want to have this story tied up for 5 years? Can they exploit the Kindle and podcasting rights effectively or would selling them mean no ebooks or podcasts of the work for 5 years and finally, are they paying enough? If they want all those rights for 5 years, they better pay premium rates.

[dangerousbill]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher, One time exclusive rights to publish the story included in the above mentioned book and the Publisher shall retain rights of printing the story five years from the date of publication. The same rights are given for a Kindle edition. Podcasting rights are also given for the five year period. If after the five year contract the Publisher and Author agree, printing of the story in the Anthology will continue.

Copyright of the book as a whole is to remain with the publisher for the first five years.
Author will list “Generic Magazine” as the original publisher should he/she have the story reprinted. Prior permission from the publisher is required before reprinting of above story.

That's one screwed-up contract. If copyright of 'the book as a whole' is to remain with the publisher for five years, that could be interpreted as 'all rights' including movie and all foreign rights, too.

If permission of the publisher is required for reprinting, then the publisher still has rights after five years.

The contract is ambiguous, which allows the publisher to interpret it pretty much any way s/he wishes. On the other hand, two legal principles are good to know:

1. When a contract is ambiguous, the courts are supposed to interpret the ambiguity in favor of the party that did *not* write the contract.

2. On the other hand, any kind of copyright litigation is outrageously expensive and slow. It's better to resolve any issues now, before anything is signed.

It might be better to consider the story as a write-off, gone forever, and consider the fact of publication in the anthology as full payment for all rights, forever.

[jaksen]

I hope he's getting paid a lot for this.

[eqb]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

The Author grants and assigns to the Publisher, One time exclusive rights to publish the story included in the above mentioned book and the Publisher shall retain rights of printing the story five years from the date of publication. The same rights are given for a Kindle edition. Podcasting rights are also given for the five year period.

This section is standard. It just means the author grants exclusive rights (for a given time period) for the publisher to use the story in the named anthology, then it names what formats (print, kindle, and podcast). Five years is too long, however. If it were me, I would negotiate for a much shorter time period--preferably a year.

If after the five year contract the Publisher and Author agree, printing of the story in the Anthology will continue.

This part is too vague. Do they mean they want to extend the term for exclusive rights? That would be author unfriendly. If they just want permission to keep printing the story in their anthology, but with nonexclusive rights, then it's not a big deal. However, I would definitely want the language clarified.

Copyright of the book as a whole is to remain with the publisher for the first five years.

Standard. This just means the publisher holds copyright to the *collection* of stories. The author still holds copyright to the individual story.

And no, it does not mean the publisher is grabbing movie rights. The previous clause already stated the allowed formats (print, kindle, and podcasting).

Author will list “Generic Magazine” as the original publisher should he/she have the story reprinted.

Not all anthologies insist on this, but it's not unusual.

Prior permission from the publisher is required before reprinting of above story.

Okay, this phrase is not standard. Once the term of exclusivity expires, the author should not have to request permission from the publisher.

[bonitakale]

SFWA's model anthology contract just gives right for first world anthology rights in all languages, and for reprints of the anthology. And it binds the author not to publish the work in a competing place for six months.

(Of course, it was written before electronic rights were so big, and it's for authors, to help them negotiate.)