These essays by Petra Christine Hardt, head of the rights department at esteemed German publisher Suhrkamp Verlag, offer unique and informed insight into day-to-day practices in the rights and permissions departments of publishing houses. Hardt also addresses key underlying and practical issues, such as the protection of intellectual property, the length of copyright, contract duration, and the appropriate royalty rates for authors.

Rights is an essential plea for contractual values that foster a long-term relationship between an author and his or her publisher. Hardt is focused on balancing the needs of the author with the economic fundamentals of the publishing industry. Her essays include discourses on acquiring, securing, and distributing the rights to a work, the challenges posed by literary agencies, and the growing significance of the Internet as a global marketplace for copyrighted works. Critical examination of these issues is accompanied by realistic proposals for their solution, making this book the perfect reference not only for publishers but also for editors and authors.