Publishing Rights

Should I Keep my Publishing Rights?

Just to have an example to go with: Let’s say you’ve created a hilarious comic strip. It’s funny, the characters are endearing, and you’re pretty good at drawing in such a way to capture the eye and provoke, at least, a few good chuckles.

Now, should you try to go through a syndicate and get published in newspapers? Or, should you try distributing your own work through the internet?

Getting a good deal with a publisher is the dream of most aspiring artists, but it’s not the only option. Self publishing has a number of benefits, and can provide the kind of creative freedom that you won’t get when going through a publisher.

Below, we’ll list the pros and cons of selling your publishing rights.

The Upside of Going through a Publisher:

• Marketing

There’s no doubt about it, comic strip syndicates, book publishers and movie distributors have the kind of money and contacts to get you more advertising than you probably could on your own (unless, of course, you actually OWN an advertising agency!). Now and then, you’ll see a mainstream company drop the ball on advertising. Certainly, many movies wind up flying under the radar and actually losing money only because their distributors didn’t really want to blow any money on advertising a film that they did not think would do very well. The irony is that many of these movies wind up with a strong cult following, thousands of fans who would’ve gladly supported the movie in theatres if they knew that it even existed back then. In general, though, a distributor or a publisher will want to advertise as much as possible so as to protect their own investments and make as much money as they can. It’s always good when an artist’s best interests are shared with a powerful publisher.

• Money

Most publishers will pay artists both a flat fee for publishing rights, as well as a percentage of the net profit on the actual sales. When you’re self publishing, you only have the possibility of sales to look forward to. When you go through a big publishing house, you usually get some money right away.

• Distribution

We have the internet, now, and you can distribute around the world in a matter of minutes. However, without powerful marketing to back it up, your work might fly right under the radar. And if you want to sell actual DVDs or paper copies of your book, it’s not easy to try and get it into bookstores around the country on your own dime.

The Downside of Going through a Publisher:

• Limited Creative Freedom

If you watch the movie news websites, you’ll read a lot of interviews where a movie’s director says something like “My movie could’ve been a lot better if the distributor hadn’t demanded so many changes!”

Because they are catering to the mainstream, more often than not, most distributors and publishers are looking for, well, mainstream content. Frank Zappa was forced to resort to self publishing only because his music didn’t sound anything like the so called “Corporate Rock” that dominated the airwaves at the time. It was weird, offbeat, and loaded with bizarre humour. In other instances, a book that was silly and weird when submitted to the publisher becomes watered down, bland, and run-of-the-mill before it reaches bookstores.

There are plenty of publishers out there that are actually looking for the more offbeat, unique, individualistic authors and artists, but understand that most publishers are looking to sell art as a consumer product, rather than as a form of individual expression.

• Sharing the Money

Work that goes through a huge publisher usually makes a lot more money than self-published work, but understand that you will be sharing whatever profits you make if you do go through a publisher. After all is said and done, a movie’s director, a book’s author, or a comic strip artist is lucky to see ten percent of the net profits.

Now, ten percent of several million dollars for a mainstream action flick can be a heck of a lot of money. But if your work isn’t easy to market, say a small, personal independent film, or an offbeat novel loaded with dark humour and strange characters, then ten percent of ten thousand dollars isn’t really all that much. 100% of ten grand is enough to live on (modestly) for a year in many cities.

It mainly depends on two things: Is your work marketable, and will a distributor pick it up. If your work is just too weird for the mainstream, you might do better to publish it yourself, or to go through a small, focused publisher that specializes in more personal work. On the other hand, if you have an idea for something more marketable, you could really, really benefit from going through a major publisher or distributor.