Nearly Half of Authors Don't Know What Their Book Rights Are

 

A recent survey done by the IPR License Author Index showed that 47% of authors didn’t know if they owned the world rights to their books. The study asked authors a variety of questions regarding copyrights and book licensing. Many of the respondents seemed to be clueless about exactly what their copyright licenses were.

Only a staggering 13% of respondents had licensed their work overseas, which represents that a huge opportunity could have been missed. Meanwhile, 59% of authors in the survey thoughts that digital copyright infringement was becoming a bigger problem.

Tom Chalmers, the managing director and IPR License, recently stated, "Some of these results border on the alarming and it's clear that many authors remain unaware of exactly what rights they hold to their work. We need to underline just how vital it is that authors are fully aware of their rights, especially for self-published and independent authors, and how we as an industry have to do more to help them get to grips with these important issues. All authors need to be in the best possible position to profit from their writing skills and the sales of various rights, both in the UK and on a global scale, whether for translation, TV, radio or film can really help maximise any potential income for all their hard work and endeavors."

The survey was part of the new IPR License campaign called “Know Your Rights”. The dedicated web resource for the campaign is www.iprlicense.com and contains case studies, articles and a rights glossary.