Legal Definitions - serial right

A serial right refers to the specific permission granted, typically within a publishing contract, to publish a written work in parts or installments. This form of publication usually occurs in a periodical, such as a magazine, newspaper, or online journal, either before the full work is released as a complete book or after its initial book publication. It is essentially the right to serialize a story, novel, or non-fiction piece over a period of time.

• Example 1: Pre-Book Magazine Serialization

  A well-known novelist completes their latest thriller. To generate excitement and pre-orders, their publisher negotiates with a popular literary magazine to publish the first two chapters of the novel across two consecutive issues, a month before the full book hits stores. In this scenario, the publisher is licensing the serial rights to the magazine, allowing them to release portions of the novel in installments prior to the complete book's official launch.

• Example 2: Post-Book Newspaper Excerpt

  After a critically acclaimed biography of a historical figure has been on bookshelves for several months, a national newspaper decides it wants to feature an in-depth look at a particular scandal detailed in the book. The newspaper approaches the book's publisher to obtain permission to print an edited excerpt of that specific chapter in their Sunday supplement. The publisher would grant the newspaper serial rights for this excerpt, enabling the newspaper to publish a segment of the already released book as an installment.

• Example 3: Online Short Story Collection Release

  An author finishes a collection of interconnected short stories and plans to release it as an e-book. To build an audience and create anticipation, they agree with a prominent online literary platform to publish one story from the collection each week for five weeks, leading up to the e-book's release. The author is granting the online platform serial rights, allowing the individual stories (installments) to be published sequentially before the entire collection is available as a single digital product.