“Intellectual property”??

[Pizzatrip]

Hi all,

I’m in the process of writing a children’s book related to my like of work - think a book on dog rescue and rehoming, whilst I work at Battersea dogs home.

The book is coming along well and I’m getting lots of positive feedback so considering attempting to publish it. I imagine if I published it via my employer I wouldn’t see any of the profit(?), however would benefit from greater publicity/career kudos. If I published it independently, then I would receive the profit from the book but may struggle with publicity/marketing unless I was taken on by a larger publisher.

Id appreciate anyone’s thoughts on the above, but also whether there would be any reason that I could “get in trouble” with my employer due to some kind of “intellectual property” issues? Obviously I wouldn’t mention the company directly and there are other companies across the country who do similar things, as in the Battersea example above.

Thanks in advance

*line of work

It depends upon your role in the company and your job duties. If your job duties relate to book writing then tough. Also check your employment contract. It can be more than ip issues - could be a breach of employment contract as well.

Yes as pp will depend on role and contract. How about suggesting a % of profits are donated to the cause - then employer helps to promote which would probably sell more, plus good for career etc happy days!

Your post is reasonable vague so you're not going to get any definitive answers but make sure you're not breaching any confidentiality requirements in your contract as or any prohibitions on 'other work'. IPR you're less likely to be breaching

Go and see an appropriate lawyer, then you will be sure?

More detail needed. As well as what pps said — is this non-fiction or a novel? A picture book? What age reader is it aimed at? If fiction, is it set at a fictional animal rescue? If so, what makes you think your employer would publish it — have they suggested this? If you want to publish traditionally, you will generally need to find an agent prepared to represent you — most publishers don’t accept unagented unsolicited manuscripts . It’s unlikely you’ll make any money in either case, bluntly, so just think about what you would like to happen without considering financial gain.

The book is coming along well and I’m getting lots of positive feedback
From whom? Is it too late to adopt a pseudonym under which to publish.

Hi all, thanks for the feedback. A bit more detail..

1. It’s a children’s fictional picture book, aimed at 7ish year olds
2. It’s about a sustainability theme important to the company
3. I am in the company’s sustainability team, but not in communications so would never be asked to produce anything similar
4. I am doing a masters through the company and the book is one of the pieces of coursework.

Hope this helps?

You need to look at your employment agreement to see if that has any relevant clauses. And any paperwork related to the masters. In my world (nhs / medical technology) if an inventor is employed by a trust or university or company then that company own the IP. In most cases a revenue sharing agreement would be put in place. However that's for information / ideas/ patents.

"Copyright" IP rests in the creation of the work and the way it is expressed. To submit your work as coursework it will need to be your own work by definition. You would need permission to use names such as "Battersea" which are protected by their owners. But if you change the names I think it's unlikely this will be a problem.

Does your employment contract say anything about ownership of IP created by you during employment? In addition, have you signed anything during the masters coursework regarding ownership of IP? If the answers to both are no, then I would say you are likely to own the copyright of this book.

Do you have an illustrator, or are you also illustrating it?

I’ll check my contract and masters paperwork and hopefully there’s nothing awkward there. Might still be best to approach my company, but would be best to have either option.

I am illustrating it, however as much as I back myself as a semi-decent illustrator which will do the job for my coursework, the book would need to be illustrated by a professional of it was ever to be sold. Having a quick look at publishing companies, they tend to have their own illustrators that they like to use. If it was something internal then I imagine they would have to hire an illustrator.

Can you explain why your company would want to publish it? Do they sell books? I'm finding it hard to imagine the scenario. For example, in my work place, it wouldn't be a problem as such if I wasn't naming it but they have their own procurement rules etc for anything they are producing and publishing. I couldn't cut across that. So not IP but other process/contractual issues.

It’s on a topic that is highly relevant to company performance and we have huge educational campaigns related to it.

The likelihood is that they probably wouldn’t and publishers also wouldn’t be interested, but feedback has been so great (and I’ve enjoyed doing it so much) that it’s worth exploring.