Know Your Rights: An Author’s Primer on Subrights
During one of my recent writers webinar, I mentioned the importance of being cautious about giving away certain rights to your book before securing a print deal. One wrong move can render your book dead in the water—something I’ve experienced firsthand.
Unsurprisingly, this piqued the crowd’s interest, and they wanted to know more. While this article won’t be exhaustive, it aims to give you a general understanding of subrights and why they matter.
Before becoming an agent, I worked at two major publishing houses where much of my role involved brokering licensing deals, as well as film and television options.
If you’re unsure what subrights are or why you should care, read on.
When most authors think about their book, they see a bound collection of pages, but your book is also intellectual property with the potential to generate income through licensing of subrights.
What Are Subrights?
Subrights, short for subsidiary rights, are additional rights tied to your book that can be licensed (sold) to expand its reach beyond its primary print format.
Some examples include:
Foreign Rights: Translating your book into other languages for international markets.
Film & TV Rights: Selling your story to Hollywood (or streaming services) to become the next big blockbuster or Netflix binge.
Audiobook Rights: Transforming your words into an audio format, potentially narrated by a well-known voice actor.
Merchandising Rights: Bringing characters or elements of your book to life as toys, games, or other products—think Disney and all the products you see based on their movies and characters. (I did a lot of this when I worked in Children’s books, and had the time of my life doing it)
Dramatic Rights: Adapting your work for stage plays.
First and Second Serial Rights:
One of the lesser-known subrights are first and second serial rights. These allow a portion of your work to be published in a magazine, newspaper, or other periodical, either before or after your book’s release.
Back in the day, when there were actual, tangible, magazines and newspapers, selling these rights were lucrative.
First Serial Rights: These rights allow a sneak peek of your book to be published before its release. This can generate buzz and anticipation while providing extra income. These rights can only be sold once.
These rights would be voided if you serialized your book on Substack.
Second Serial Rights: These rights allow excerpts to be published after your book is released, keeping interest alive and bringing in additional income. These rights can be sold as many times as possible.
The potential for licensing doesn’t stop there. Your book might have untapped opportunities waiting to be discovered, and understanding these opportunities is the first step toward leveraging them.
Why Subrights Matter
With advances shrinking in traditional publishing, subrights can provide an additional revenue stream. Subrights sales often act as a secondary advance for the author, although some publishers structure contracts so these sales contribute toward "earning out" the original advance. These are things to watch for or ask your publisher about prior to signing the contract.
For example:
Foreign Rights: Selling your book into markets like Germany or Japan, could introduce your story to an entirely new audience.
Audiobook Rights: With audiobooks growing in popularity, licensing these rights can expand your audience dramatically.
Merchandising Rights: This could be a whole line of plush toys, paper goods—like calendars and wrapping paper or home goods.
Film or TV Rights: Even if your book doesn’t get made into a movie, an option deal can still provide a significant payday.
Not to be a downer, but it seems more and more these days everybody wants a free shopping option – but that’s a topic for another day.
Subrights aren’t just about money—they're about reach. They allow your story to transcend formats and borders, finding audiences you might never reach otherwise.
I would like to note here, what I mentioned at the start of this article. If you sell certain rights, such as audio, before you sell the print rights – you have little chance of a major traditional publisher (and even mid level presses) acquiring your book, as they rely on having these subrights to recoup acquisition costs.
What to Know Before You Sign a Contract
Most publishing contracts include subrights clauses, with publishers typically requesting all rights upfront. While this may seem reasonable, you don’t always have to give them away or agree to their terms.
If you’re working with an agent, they should negotiate these terms for you. But even if you don’t have representation, you need to understand the key points:
Who Controls What? Understand which rights you’re granting to your publisher and which you’re retaining.
Royalty Splits: Negotiate how revenue from subrights will be divided. Standard splits range from 50/50 to 85/15 in favor of the author.
Reversion Clauses: Ensure you can regain subrights if the publisher doesn’t exploit them within a certain timeframe.
Some subrights may be best handled by the publisher, especially if they have strong in-house departments that focus on specific areas, such a foreign rights. Again, this will depend on the publisher and your type of book.
Pro tip: Never sign a contract without understanding the terms—or consulting a professional who does. An agent doesn’t give legal advice – at least this agent doesn’t.
How to Protect and Maximize Your Subrights
Do Your Homework: Research which subrights are common for your genre. For example, thrillers often have strong film potential, while audiobooks are thriving across genres.
Work with Professionals: A skilled agent can negotiate your contracts and connect you with subrights specialists for film, audio, and foreign rights. Again, depending on the book, it’s often best to leave certain rights with the publisher.
Think Strategically: If a publisher insists on certain subrights, consider a “use it or lose it” clause. This ensures rights revert to you if they remain unused within a set timeframe.
Understanding subrights isn’t just about protecting your intellectual property—it’s about maximizing your book’s potential. While you don’t need to become an expert, knowing enough to ask the right questions is essential.
Whether you’re working with a publisher, an agent, or both, being informed will help you make the best decisions for your career. Subrights are opportunities, and with the right approach, they can turn your book into a multi-faceted success.
NEW TO GRYPHON QUILL? Check out more writing tips here including:
How to keep agents reading: The Science of Rejection
How to write strong scenes: Hook the Agent
How to not stress over comps: Fiction Comps are BS
NEW TO ME: You can find more about me here.
In the UK the Society of Authors will give detailed advice on individual publishing contracts - which as a small time agentless author I've found very useful.
I didn’t know too much about subrights before reading this (I don’t think many authors do!). A very helpful breakdown and one I will share with my writing group.