In a message dated 98-05-03 22:28:50 EDT, you write:

<< Maybe KA knows more about this, but it has something to  do  with the type
 of contract you sign with the publisher.  In one type of contract I believe
 you can retain control of how and where your materials are printed and in
 the other you lose control to the publisher.  It is an  important area to
 explore  and get legal advice if you are doing anything for publication,
 whether it is print or video or audio. >>

Here's how it works if your initial publication was a book.

In your contract there's a section headed "Subsidiary Rights."  These are
rights to use the material in your book in other contexts.  They range from
audio recordings, to "film or theatrical use" -- which is relevant for
teaching materials! -- to large print editions, to just about any other
offshoot of your publication.

Subsidiary rights also include what publishers call "first serial use,"
meaning giving permission to reprint excerpts anywhere before the book
appears, and "second serial use," which is also frequently called
"permissions,' in a a kind of shorthand, meaning permission to reprint excepts
anywhere, after the book is published -- whether in newspapers, in textbooks,
or in formula company handouts.

For any of these that your publisher controls, they will try actively to sell
them and will handle all the paperwork -- which is good for you -- but will
also take a cut of $$ received -- which is the downside, from a financial
perspective.

When you first negotiate your contract the publisher is likely to ask you to
give them control of all of these rights, but you can negotiate to retain some
-- meaning that people who want to use your material in those ways would need
to come to you, rather than to the publisher, but that you would keep whatever
$$ you can persuade those buyers to pay.

Second serial permissions -- which seems to be Kathleen Huggins's waterloo --
however is almost always given to the publisher, and they probably won't agree
to give it up.  It's normally a substantial profit center for the publishing
house, even though they usually split the take with you 50/50.

But you can ALWAYS negotiate that they can give permission  "with the author's
approval, such approval not unreasonably to be withheld."  That means that
after they have negotiated a deal they need to run it by you before it takes
effect.

 If that's in your contract, then no well-meaning-but-clueless 22 year old in
the publisher's sub-rights department will think they are doing you a favor by
taking big royalties on your and the publishers joint behalf from some buyer
you can't stand.

If anyone has specific questions on publishing questions, now or at any time,
feel free to email me.

Elisheva Urbas
freelance book editor and publishing consultant, aside from being a peer-b/f-
supporter
[log in to unmask]