Part of our "Start a Successful Freelance Writing Career" Video series
( Read the transcript )
RETENTION RIGHTS
If it's ghostwritten, you don't own it. As mentioned above, after you have handed a ghostwritten piece over to the person buying it, the piece isn't yours anymore. This means that if you write an article for twenty dollars and then later stumble across it in a national magazine you really don't have any recourse, even though you can be pretty sure that the person who sold the article to the magazine made a substantial amount of money.
Remember: ghostwriting means you do the work and get paid, but you aren't entitled to any of the credit associated with the work. Sometimes, even with your name on it, you don't own it. Some companies retain the rights to the content you produce, but still give you full credit as the writer. This means that you write the piece, receive pay, and have your name in the byline, but you cannot resell the piece to another buyer or display it in other places, such as on your personal website. The reasoning behind this is simple…if a company pays you to contribute an original piece, they certainly do not want the piece to show up through other sources. Not all companies insist on exclusive retention rights, while some only want the retention rights for a certain amount of time. Other companies allow you to put the article wherever you want, complete with your byline.
If it's ghostwritten, you don't own it. As mentioned above, after you have handed a ghostwritten piece over to the person buying it, the piece isn't yours anymore. This means that if you write an article for twenty dollars and then later stumble across it in a national magazine you really don't have any recourse, even though you can be pretty sure that the person who sold the article to the magazine made a substantial amount of money.
Remember: ghostwriting means you do the work and get paid, but you aren't entitled to any of the credit associated with the work. Sometimes, even with your name on it, you don't own it. Some companies retain the rights to the content you produce, but still give you full credit as the writer. This means that you write the piece, receive pay, and have your name in the byline, but you cannot resell the piece to another buyer or display it in other places, such as on your personal website. The reasoning behind this is simple…if a company pays you to contribute an original piece, they certainly do not want the piece to show up through other sources. Not all companies insist on exclusive retention rights, while some only want the retention rights for a certain amount of time. Other companies allow you to put the article wherever you want, complete with your byline.
