Re: Publishing
You don't sign away your copyright -- not with a reputable publisher, at any rate. You still own your own work... what you do is agree to give them the exclusive right to publish it for a certain length of time. That's why they're so keen on getting first publishing rights in the first place... it means they get the first shot at making money with it.
From the other side, it doesn't look particularly different -- they still publish the book. However, they can't enter into any other deals with that book... they can't for example, allow it to be optioned for a movie. That's something that has to be taken up directly with the author, because the author still owns the material.
As to the other two, yeah. I plan to start a "rejection letters" collection and have the first 50 framed...
