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Re: POST; should be Work for hire


No, no, no.  I care very much about second, third and one-time rights on all
my written material.


I understand what you're trying to say, Doreen. But---and this just goes to show how misunderstood all this is---there are no such things as third rights. Technically, all subsequent sales of the same material are second rights.

Reworking many of the articles I write is impossible (Brook's answer to
using an article for another market),


You misunderstand. That's not my answer to using an article for another market. Somebody had posted here that they rework all their stuff for other, non-competing markets, and if somebody buys all rights they couldn't do that. I was merely pointing out that a reworked story is a new work, not subject to an "all rights" buy out.

Personally, I do whatever is necessary to recycle my research. Sometimes this means reworking a piece for new markets. Sometimes it means selling second rights. Whatever it takes.

However, my main point was that secondary rights is only important to people like you and me, who recognize the source of money inherent in reprints. Taken as a whole, this does not apply to most freelancers, many of whom feel they are too proud to play in secondary markets. That, of course, is their decision to make. However, if a writer, for whatever reason, has no intention of every reselling the work, it doesn't matter---on a practical (which is what I said) as opposed to legal level---what rights they sell.


I have not gone to India or Alaska, but I have gone wonderful places at the
expense of a publisher to photograph and write.  AND, I have granted ONLY
First North American Serial Rights


This, obviously, is a choice you make. But it doesn not make work for hire the evil Rich tried making it out to be.

to magazines with circulation in the tens.

of millions.


Gosh, Doreen. Could you name even one magazine that has circulation in the tens of millions. You say, right here, "magazines", plural. I'd like to know the name of just one of them. 

AH! Brook!  You really do see the problem.


No, Doreen, I don't see it as a problem at all. What I do is look at each case individually, instead of making blanket rules. If a market wants all rights, and it isn't likely to be meaningful, then I sell them all rights and go on about my business. If it is a meaningful term for that publisher, then we negotiate a price that reflects their likely use of it.

That is, of course, another point that lots of writers seem to miss: that every clause in a contract is negotiable, and that you don't have to accept their offer. But that takes us into other waters.

  Publishing is a business like every other in the world;  profit
is focus, whether it is stockholders yelling for increasingly bigger
dividends or a family-held corporation that finances other ventures with
profits.


Precisely. But let's not forget that it's a busness for us, too, and maximizing our return on investment is what it's all about.

As freelance writers we have only one valuable commodity. That's time. You invest X hours in a project, and you must get Y dollars back. Time is a finite resource, however. So, in order to maximize Y you follow certain paths. You recycle your work however you can, and you find better paying markets for the original work, and you arrange columns and regular features so there is a rationalized income base, and all the other things that raise your income figure.

The folks who do this are called successful. The ones who don't; well, they have all kinds of time to sit around whining about what rights to sell.



Brook 
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