It may surprise readers (and wannabe writers) that legally,
writers do not sell stories. That’s how it’s described in everyday terms, such
as selling a story to a magazine or selling a novel to a publisher. But in legal
terms, what writers sell is copyright.
This can become extremely complicated. See my post on
speakers at Norwescon on how publishers try to get the rights to audiobooks.
They will also try to get the rights to movie versions, graphic book versions,
action figures, t-shirts, etc. This all has to be negotiated. But it underlines
the fact that what the writer sells is copyright to the story. In some
contracts, the rights revert to the writer if sales of the novel fall below a
certain point. And there are nightmare stories of a publisher going bankrupt,
and writers have no clear path to recovering their copyright.
On the lighter side, the old Star Trek did some black and
white publicity photos. They never copyrighted them. They are public domain.
Don’t know who this is? Watch an old show.
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