ownership

hi there. i am pretty new to this world of publishing written work. when a magazine wants to purchase an article and they retain ownership of that article - does that mean i give up rights to it as the author? just curious - please expand my knowledge!!! thanks, lea :confused:

Hi Lea,

The answer to your question varies with each publisher. At ChristianWriters.com, the author retains rights and may resell the work as they please.

Since this post is more a general question and not a CW support question, I am moving it to the Open Forum so other members can leave their comments, suggestions and opinions.

God bless, and have a wonderful weekend! :D

Rebecca

Lea,

I found this one the Writer's Digest site. This is pretty common to magazines, although a few do "All Rights", but they have to pay pretty good before I'll agree to that. Books, of course, are a whole different world.

The author of this peice is credited at the bottom.

-Perk

When you sell first serial rights (also referred to as “first rights”), you give a newspaper or magazine the right to publish your manuscript for the first time. All other rights remain with the writer. Sometimes the qualifier “North American” is added to specify a geographical limitation to the rights.
After the publication that bought first rights publishes the manuscript, you may resell it to another publication if you retained all but first rights. If a publication buys only nonexclusive rights to your article, you may resell it to other publications at any time.

Sometimes the publication that buys first rights to your article will wish to reprint it. If so, it must negotiate a reprint fee with you unless your contract granted the right to reprint.
--Christine Mersch, Newsletter Editor

appreciate that clarification, gives me a bit of knowledge to work with. really, thank you.

Lea

Lea,

I saw your zikomo and wondered. I grew up in Malawi (actually was born there) as the daughter of missionaries. What a surprise to see you typing that!

Anyway, I have a book for you to read that will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about getting published. It's called "Getting Published" and is written by Sally Stuart. I am in the process of reading it and it has a whole section on all the various types of rights. You might try your library, but I don't think it was too expensive if you want to buy it. I'm sure that Christian Book Distributors would have it.
http://www.christianbook.com

Anyway for now...

Tsalani bwino, (stay well - goodbye)

Lynnette