Earlier today I tossed out a question to the twitterverse: “Attn writers: Would you prefer to be paid more for your work (and have less rights) or be paid less (and have more rights)?”
My suspicion was that in a digital era where self-publishing is taking an increasingly larger piece of the traditional publishing’s pie, writers are valuing the worth of their intellectual property a bit more than they were twenty years ago. Or, to be more precise, writers have more and easier options to independently extract value from their intellectual property (e.g., online self-publishing).
But, unless you have the means to extract that value on your own (i.e., the time and knowledge to successfully self-publish, which includes marketing, technical, and other considerations), money may still be the priority. Someone’s got to make the cheese sandwiches, right?
Responses on twitter were mixed: @HoppingFun and @vforvoice came down on the rights/it depends side, while @davisac1 and @jchutchins opted for more money.
So, writers, I put it to you: which do you prefer? More money or more rights? More importantly, why or under what conditions?
UPDATE!
I moved some of the twitter responses over here so they wouldn’t be lost. Reviews are mixed, but “depends” seems to be the front runner so far…
@jchutchins: More money, less rights.
@vforvoice: More rights, less money. Media is too expansive to not retain rights for derivatives of original material.
@davisac1: I’d totally sell more rights for more money. That’s what I’d be trying to do with them anyway.
@HoppingFun: Depends on the biz plan and people involved. If I have creative freedom, I’d likely go for a split.
@BFree63: It’s a short term vs long term choice. With more rights comes more money down the road. I call it “investing in yourself”.
@chrisw10: With regards to writing, I think it depends entirely on the long tail. For my 1st story, I want more rights, less money for it, cause I think its too good to let someone tie up rights to it. But for anything I’m doing career-wise, more money, less rights.
[I then asked @chrisw10: “So, career/professional project= money, personal project = rights?”]
@chrisw10: For me, that’s probably how it breaks down. Though any commerical book that I think may be big I’d want to keep e-book rights. Unless giving them up will get me more in the long-run. It’s all about the long run. :)
@JolleySezStuff: Depends — is this a project I’m passionate about? Or did my car just die?
@gmskarka: For most writers, that’s a false dichotomy — More RIghts EQUALS More Money (in the long run).
@floerianthebard: Depends on the piece of work. If I want to do more with it b/c I see potential, I’d take less pay. If it’s a one-off, more pay.
@andrhia: More money, less rights.
@simon_staffans: Best of worlds? More $ first with a buy-back-in-option in the future. Likelihood of happening? Will there ever be world peace?
I agree with Gareth on the false dichotomy. Transactional writers go for the money first, but career-minded creators focused on the long-game know he owns the rights, wins. Ask any old-school comics creator about that.
No doubt “both” is better than “one or the other.”
For me, the question boils down to how best to extract maximum value from an IP. On your own? With a publisher? Some new hybrid model we haven’t seen yet?
I suspect it also has to do with how many cheese sandwiches a writer requires at the moment.
And that (ahem) depends on a lot of factors. : )