Traditional Publishing vs Indie Publishing… COPYRIGHT??

Writer’s Just Don’t Understand Copyright…

This week I read a bunch of discussions about the different paths in publishing…

Every one of those discussions forget the MOST IMPORTANT element,,. Copyright.

And with copyright comes control of the work’s future.

You sell a novel to one of the last four traditional publishers these days and they buy all rights for the life of the copyright. Period.

Stupid responses I got from myth-filled writers who are going to try to sell a book to traditional publishing no matter what anyone says.

“There is a reversion clause. I will get my rights back.”  In electronic publishing world, that is as worthless as the bankruptcy clause they have been sticking in for fifty years. You have sold your book for the life of the copyright, which for those of you who do not know, is 70 years past your death.

“I get money if they sell other rights like to the movie.” Yeah, of a $200,000 streaming deal, you might get a few thousand against your advance, but you will have no control and your name will be after the movie is finished scrolling past. If you control the copyright as an indie, you will get the full amount of money (more than likely more) and if you know how to ask, you will get your name and the name of your book the show is based on in the first few cards and you will make even more as an executive producer (just a credit, you do nothing.) Plus with your name up front and your books title, your book sales will explode.

“They will do all the work for me.” Wow, you have been living under a rock if you believe that crap. I have worked in both worlds, and trust me, I do a lot less work on a book publishing it indie than I ever did with traditional novels I sold. Factors less.

“My agent will take care of me.” Yes, they will, but not in the way you want them to. And you are not their only client and they will trade you off with a publisher like an old baseball card. And did you run a background check and financial check on your agent before you turned over all your money and the paperwork with that money to them?? Of course you didn’t. You trust them, right? Wow, did they see you and your myth-filled dreams coming.

And the one I heard today that took me a while to stop laughing… “I can make a lot more money in traditional publishing.” This again shows no level of understanding of what most indies know, that unlike traditional publishing, our books don’t spoil and we control our own copyright and can make money off it for a very long time into the future. In traditional, all you get is the advance. As I figured last week in some posts, a three book, half-million dollar deal will make you about $100,000 per year over four years. Chances are here in 2026 your first deal will be for two books and $10,000 which will earn you barely what indie writers call coffee money.

But the huge difference is that if you sell your book (and sell is the right term), you lose all your copyright on that work, can’t do anything with it, and it will take 35 years here in the States for you got get it back. Indie publishing that same book could be making you money over and over and over for the rest of your life and 70 years past your life. It might be small money, but wow does it add up over time.

I would never sell a book to traditional publishing for any reason. Period. And I feel sad when I see some young writer locked into the myths from 40 years ago and losing their copyright and the control of their own work.

Worst case: You are sitting in a theater and watching a movie made from your book. The book title and your name are nowhere to be seen, and you earned $5,000 against your royalty when the publisher sold that right to a movie company. And you can’t even claim the movie, since you don’t own the rights to the book you wrote. The publisher does.

And that is why you need to learn copyright.