So You’ve Gotten Your Rights Back

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve published a couple of posts about getting your character rights back from publishers.  This enables writers to continue publishing new books in a series.   In my case, I’d been allowed to continue my series, but I hadn’t been able to republish my backlist (the publishers still wanted to hold those rights).

My backlist is still being held by Penguin for one of my series (and another Penguin series doesn’t have a hope of released rights), but for another publisher I finally have the digital rights back to the first book in the Myrtle Clover series (as of July).  I’d received print rights back some time back to the book.

If this all sounds rather complicated…yes, it can be.   I regularly receive emails from traditionally published writers who either aren’t sure about how to go about asking for rights or who aren’t totally sure what to do after they get their rights back.

If you’re trying to get your rights back, see these posts of mine for a little direction:

Thoughts on Getting Rights Back

Self-Publishing a Series that Started in Trad. Pub

If you’re a writer who isn’t totally sure what to do once you’ve gotten yours back, here are some ideas (I’m working on most of these, myself).

Character Rights:

If you’ve gotten your character rights back (but not the rights to republish the first books in your series), there are a few things you can do.

First off, you can continue writing your series.  This is not (at least, it wasn’t for me) very time-consuming since we’ve already built the story world and have well-developed characters.

Usually you’ll need to figure out a delicate balance between continuing the branding from the beginning of the series and not using the same elements that your publisher’s cover designer used.  This may mean changing the font (but possibly using the same color scheme), etc.  It’s a little tricky, but it helps if you find a professional cover designer who can figure out how best to navigate it.

If your books function as standalones, it’s possible to create box sets/bundles with the books that you write.  I’ve done it and readers didn’t complain about not getting the first book in the series.

With the books you write yourself, you can really expand your audience.  When you expand your reach, I’ve found that readers go back and read the first books in your series, too.  Try moving into audio, the library market, foreign markets, and translated books.

Digital and Print Rights to Books the Publisher Previously Held: 

Here is where things really start opening up.

First off, you can set your book one as a loss leader (at a lower price than the rest of your books)  or a newsletter magnet (a giveaway for readers who sign up for your author newsletter to hear of new releases).

Now you can create box sets where all of the books in the series are included.

Maybe your books weren’t available in print.  Maybe they weren’t available in hardcover. Maybe they weren’t available digitally.  Or in large print.  Now you have an opportunity to correct that by making the book available in all formats.

If you’re trying to reach a younger audience, you can upload the first book in the series to a platform like Wattpad (I’ve developed a much younger readership this way).  It’s best to upload a chapter each week and put a note at the bottom of each chapter stating where to buy the rest of the series.

And the same advice as above applies: you can expand your reach because you hold all the rights.  Want to reach the library market?  Audio book lovers?  English language readers in other countries (UK, Australia, Canada)?  Readers in non-English-speaking markets through translation?

If all of this seems like a lot of work in addition to your writing (and reading this post over, it definitely does), then remember to tackle it in small increments.  Research a format or a distributor for 10 minutes each day for a week.  Then set up a profile at the retailer or distributor the following day.  Then upload a book or two.  Just take it one task at a time.

Have you had rights reverted to you?  How are you exploiting them?

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