We are struggling with the issue of authors'
rights and remuneration for reprints. We are going to a new reprint service
and the issue has come up. Our contractual agreement with our authors is
that we receive first North American serial rights. Does that give us the
right to reprint their article without their permission? Do we owe them
money? Could anyone give us advice or illuminate
what is the standard practice for reprints as regards author's fees, etc?
Thanks in advance.
Tom

I do not know what standard practice is. However, I do know that everything is up for negotiation. And there's the moral and ethical issue that I always fall back on.

If your contract with the writer does not specifically say you have the right to reprint material, then you probably don't.

If you want that right, it must be included in the contract.

If you, therefore, make money off of reprints (or any other platform in which the article is used), I believe you have the moral obligation to pay the writer extra for that.

Put yourself in the writer's shoes. One day it might be you who is freelancing. And so many freelancers will never make the money you make working full-time. And that's sad.

Unless you have a signed statement guaranteeing you all rights, you should really pay the author for reuse.

We have agreements with some of our standard writers and all of our colunists that we have Web rights and reprint rights for them.

I have signed releases from all of them stating this, just to cover us both.

I hope that helps.