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Self Defense for Writers: The Rights Grab
If you hang out with writers you’ll eventually hear the phrase “rights grab.” Because we’ve all had it tried on us at some point. Most often it’s in the context of shady writing contests, but rights grabs can happen everywhere. For example, I had a friend who signed (against my advice, although I’m not a lawyer) a contract which handed over the movie rights to his publisher. He trusted them to negotiate if it happened. I sat there rolling my eyes and then told him bad things would happen. (They did. The publisher, Curiosity Quills Press eventually earned a feature on Writer Beware, something no publisher wants for missed deadlines, errors reappearing after proofreading, lack of marketing support, typos on covers, and of course late royalty payments). The contract also included a hefty kill fee…payable by the author. The deep pink flag turned out to be even more red than I thought. Curiosity Quills Press is now essentially defunct.
Obviously, the problems here ran a little bit deeper than the rights grab, but it shows how they can be a red flag for other issues later.
Now, I’m going to say if you have any doubt about a contract at all, consider a lawyer; although with many short story contracts the amounts are too small to make it worth it. Novel contracts are another matter.