Who Owns Your Book Manuscript “Edits”?

Who owns your edits?

Are you considering traditional book publishing? Do you have a contract in hand but haven’t signed yet? Did you work with an editor? Then beware.

Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware has another warning for you—and for those of you considering self-publishing your out-of-print books.

Check out the contract language from these publishers claiming that, once your book manuscript has been edited for publication, you can’t claim that version as yours anymore. Not even if you’ve gotten your rights back. Some of these seem to say you can’t republish.

Thanks for about the thousandth time to Victoria Strauss and Writer Beware for keeping abreast of these publishing-contract traps.

Share if you’ve had a publisher (or an editor) claim that once your manuscript has been edited, it’s no longer your book!