Books & rights
Subsidiary rights
Every way a book can be reused: serial, clubs, large print, digest, and the rest of the small print.
Subsidiary rights are the rights beyond the primary edition — the book as a newspaper extract, a book-club edition, a large-print run, a digest, a quotation anthology. Individually they look minor. Together they are often why a midlist title still pays. The fight in the contract is who is allowed to sell them, and how the money is split.
- Typical pay
- From a few hundred pounds for a serial extract to several thousand for a book-club deal. Splits with the publisher are commonly 50/50 to 90/10 in your favour, depending on the right.
- Ceiling
- Solid ceiling
- Speed
- First money in months
- Effort
- Light extra work
- Needs
- Needs a book
How it works
- 01
The publishing contract lists which subsidiary rights the publisher may exploit, and the author's share of proceeds.
- 02
The publisher's rights department (or your agent, if you retained the right) offers those licences to newspapers, clubs, and specialist publishers.
- 03
Money arrives as a share of the licence fee, often accounted on the same cycle as royalties.
How to start
- 01
Read the rights-granted clause before you sign. Anything you do not grant, you keep.
- 02
If you have an agent who is good at rights, retaining some of them can be worth more than a slightly larger advance.
- 03
Ask, specifically, what the house has recently sold in serial, large print, and book club for books like yours.
Watch out
- 01
A publisher who takes a right and never exploits it has still taken it. Reversion clauses matter.
- 02
Book-club and high-discount deals can cannibalise full-price sales. That is a trade-off, not a free lunch.
- 03
Never sign away 'all subsidiary rights' in a vague bundle if you can list them instead.
When I ran a publishing company, subsidiary rights were the difference between a title that merely existed and a title that worked. Writers see the spine in the shop. Publishers see a bundle of licences. Learn to see the bundle.