It’s a lucky writer who sells millions of copies of their books. I have always been intrigued by some of the companies out there in the book world who sell really cheap copies of the classics. When I explored this I found out that the copyrights on old works expire after some time. If there isn’t a family member around to keep renewing the copyright, then companies such as the one I mentioned can publish works without renewed copyrights and sell them very cheap. I have heard stories of people who wanted to sell book rights before trying to publish something without expecting any royalty money. This was because they thought they would make a larger profit if they were to sell book rights at first chance.
I have heard other stories of artists who were in a movie, and refused payment for their role but chose to get a percentage of royalties from the profits. This sort of arrangement has been extremely lucrative for the few and far between. I think if I were going to sell writing, even if it were more complicated, I would never sell book rights to a company. I have heard some bad stories about people who did this who didn’t understand what they were getting themselves into.
And if your writing is used later, or redone, the people who use it don’t have to pay you anything at all and might end up making a lot of money from your effort. I have heard of a lot of remakes where the copyright expired and then it was quite a steal for the person who made the remake to do so. I think that writers and other types of artists should always try to protect themselves. It may be complicated but if you are selling a work to someone, or just publishing it and copyrighting it yourself, it might be helpful to have your lawyer friend look at the terms. You never can tell what’s going to be really popular or what’s going to be a dud in the world of public entertainment.
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