what are the implications of using user generated stories submitted to a website into a book. All I can think of is needing a terms of agreement when people submit their stories saying that the user agrees that their story may be used in a book compiled of the stories submitted on this site, and no royalties may be claimed by the user. can anyone think of any problems that may arise?
Use TOS or a clickwrap license that gives the owner the right to republish content submitted. An example would be Youtube (at one point) when you submitted a video you gave them the rights (they no longer have this in there TOS). Other examples would be most forums.
Issues to consider are: - whether people are giving you the exclusive publishing rights when they submit their story - if you want exclusive rights, how long do you want them for? You might get more people to submit if they were transferring non-exclusive rights, or exclusive rights for only a year or two. - whether the submitters are only giving you the print rights, or print and electronic rights - you want to spell out very clearly and completely that the submitters will get no royalties and no other compensation (if that's the case) - The SFWA site has model contracts for different kinds of publications that might be helpful: http://www.sfwa.org/contracts/