No use of a work should be made without the writer's approval of medium, format, and content. Electronic publishing is likely to undergo a series of rapid and radical transformations. To respond to these changes, writers should carefully control the disposition of their electronic rights. Writers should strive to retain all of their electronic rights and negotiate to secure those rights up front, when they negotiate their advance. The simplest way for writers to control their electronic rights is to retain those rights.
Writers are then free to evaluate specific electronic publishing opportunities that arise.
Writers should bear in mind that electronic rights are valuable and should only be given up in exchange for substantial additional compensation. By negotiating for these rights before the publisher prepares the first draft of a contract writers will retain the credible threat of taking the work elsewhere, maintaining maximum leverage in attempting to secure the rights. Writers should not be expected to negotiate terms for electronic publication when they sign a print publishing contract. The value of those rights and the entire electronic publishing industry are likely to change radically in the near future. Writers with agents traditionally retain subsidiary rights such as film rights that involve the transformation of the work into a new medium.