The indie author movement is maturing. It's no longer about throwing up an ebook up on Amazon, it's about professional standards, creating an excellent book and turning your intellectual property assets into multiple streams of income. Today I talk to Orna Ross about How Authors Sell Publishing Rights.

In the intro, I mention the news that Amazon Giveaways are now available for ebooks, and an article on Written Word Media that shows authors who earn over $5000 per month have written 13.75 books, use professionally designed book covers and pro editors, write in popular genres, and use free as a promotional technique.

This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors.

Orna Ross is a bestselling novelist, poet and author of creative non-fiction. She is the founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors and has been voted one of the top 100 most influential people in publishing by The Bookseller.

Today we're talking about her new book, How Authors Sell Publishing Rights, co-written with Helen Sedwick who has also been on the show before.

You can listen above or on iTunes or Stitcher or watch the video here, read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below.

What rights are and why they matter to authors.

How rights originated.

How the internet affected publishing rights and how 'world rights' came into being.

On print rights and the 'zone of total possibility'.

Authors deciding if they want the responsibility of dealing with and selling their rights.

How to find and pitch to a publisher to sell certain rights, including the resources available to authors to undertake the search for rights buyers, like IPRLicense.

Strategies and advanced planning for selling rights at book fairs.

The different ways authors have had success with rights sales.

The necessary maturity of authors who want to explore rights sales.

On film and TV rights and the best strategy for selling those.

Why getting a lawyer involved is more important for film and TV rights.

You can find Orna at www.OrnaRoss.com and on twitter @ornaross. How Authors Sell Publishing Rights is here on Amazon.

Transcription of interview with Orna Ross
Joanna: Hi everyone. I'm Joanna Penn from thecreativepenn.com, and today I'm here with Orna Ross. Hi Orna.

Orna: Hi Joanna, and hello everyone on Joanna`s podcast, delighted to be here.

Joanna: Yes, it's great to have you back. Just a little introduction. Orna is a best-selling novelist, poet, and author of creative non-fiction. She's the founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors and has been voted one of the top 100 most influential people in publishing by The Bookseller.

And today we're talking about her new book, "How Authors Sell Publishing Rights", which is co-written with Helen Sedwick who has also been on the show and is absolutely fantastic. So Orna, we're not gonna to talk too much about you today, because you know we've had you on the show talking about your stuff. We're gonna to talk about this book, so let's start with the definition.
What are publishing rights anyway?
Orna: Publishing rights are essentially the permission you grant to other people to produce some kind of format of your work. So they are protected by copyright.

If copyright law didn't exist, we wouldn't have publishing rights to sell, and a lot of work went into securing copyright as a right for authors. As a result, we can turn our work into audio books, maybe have a movie made, reprint rights, even reprographic rights. You know, people who photocopy your work are supposed to pay you a fee. So there are just loads and loads of different rights.

And essentially, the function of rights in publishing is to extend your reader...