Selling copyright.

How much is a reasonable price for sale of copyright?

[AmyGQ]

Hi,

If there's a thread for this topic and I missed it, I apologise. I tried to find one.

I was wondering if anybody with experience of selling or purchasing the copyright on web copy and SEO copy could tell me, please, roughly how much greater the price tends to be compared to the price of simply purchasing a license to use the copy.

Thanks very much for your time.

[goodroi]

Pricing depends on the quality and quantity of the content being offered. If you are offering a one page description or a 10 volume dictionary. Also the subject will impact the price. Content about the latest digital camera settings is harder to create than content about hanging photos. Also the shelf life will impact this. The value of the latest digital camera settings is only good for a few months, where content about hanging photos is always useful. Another factor to think about is if you are going to sell a license, will you limit the number of licenses or sell anyone a license. Because the fewer people that have the content the more valuable it is. Good luck.

[goodroi]

accidentally doubled clicked

[EileenC]

First you need to know what rights you're buying and selling. You can sell the rights to articles in a number of different ways. If it's promotional copy to sell your product or service, however, that's generally seen to be a one-time only deal - in other words, you couldn't sell reprint rights to that.

Here's how I do it:
If I write an article for a print magazine, they usually buy one of the following:
1. All rights - I never get to use it again or resell it. They pay top dollar for all rights.
2. First rights - they can print it first, and once it has appeared in print, rights revert back to me and I can resell reprint rights. They can't use it again without paying for it again.
3. Reprint rights - I can resell this article again and again. The people who buy it can use it only one time. Reprint rights usually cost the least.

The web has complicated the question of rights, because once an article appears on the web, very few print publications will pay you for it even as a reprint. When I write an article for a client who is going to post it on the web, I generally sell them all rights, and charge accordingly, for that reason.

Now, web copy (as opposed to content/articles) is promotional in nature, sales-oriented. This pays top dollar, too, and is usually valued even more than articles because it plays a bigger role in actually selling the product. Unless they're inexperienced and don't understand the issue of rights, most people who write web copy would never think of re-selling or re-using the copy for another client. In fact, you'd get into big trouble with your first client if you tried to do that. When I write promotional copy, I sell all rights to the customer. SEO copy - if it is to be read by humans and is not just for automated search engines to pick up keywords - commands the highest price, because you're writing for two purposes at once and it's tricky. When people buy regular promotional copy or SEO copy, they generally expect to be able to use it whenever and however and as often as they want - on the web, in a brochure, whatever. Generally all rights transfer to them once they have paid in full for the material.

I hope that answers your question.

[AmyGQ]

Thanks very much for your help, both of you.

[eurotrash]

You should also check out iCopyright.com - there is a whole business forming from this very issue.