Friday, October 19, 2007

The Branded Author

We talk about subsidiary rights fairly often, and most of the time what we focus on are foreign rights and movie/performance rights. But this question reminded me that there’s a lot more to sub rights than we often talk about with the author.

I have an agented, illustrated non-fiction book out to several big houses. My book could easily spawn a line of other merchandise–greeting cards, calendars, coffee mugs, etc. I see it as eventually being a "brand." What control, if any, will the publisher have over my venturing into other merchandising with the book? How would/could my agent fit into this plan?

Any agent worth her salt will retain what are called merchandising rights, especially with nonfiction. These are the rights to make your book into calendars, greeting cards, and other merchandise that are not books. How much control the publisher has depends on how much you give them. As to how an agent can fit into this plan, I am right now actively submitting calendar rights for at least one book project.

Jessica

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the subject of "branding", let me tell you something...

It's a lot better to be branded an a$$ than to have your a$$ branded, if you know what I mean.

Anonymous said...

"... especially with nonfiction"

Could you explain, please? You seem to be implying that there are more opportunities for merchandizing with nonfiction. I wasn't aware of that.

Thanks!

Aimlesswriter said...

Merchandizing rights...good to know. Look at that boy wizard book!
Would this apply to books with a character like a modern day Sherlock Holmes?

Jessica Burkhart said...

Great post! I've been wondering about this.