How Authors Sell Publishing Rights E-Book

Alliance of Independent Authors

• Herausgeber: Font Publications
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Publishing Guides for Indie Authors
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 222

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Authors: want to know how to make more money from your books without writing another word?

Receiving self-publishing commissions or publisher royalties is only one revenue stream for your books. There are many other possibilities, from translations to video games, merchandising to print, but the rights world is a complex mix of formats, platforms, apps, territories and terms. Each market and each buyer offers different opportunities and operates by different rules. This guides you through.

It shows you how to approach rights buyers, what they’re looking for, and what to expect when discussing the license or ‘sale of rights’ for your book. You’ll learn how to pitch, negotiate and close a deal, and how to work with literary agents and global publishing companies. You will also be introduced to the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)’s indie author rights program, which offers ongoing support.

Everything you need to begin successfully and selectively licensing your publishing rights for sale.

Leseprobe

HOW AUTHORS SELL PUBLISHING RIGHTS

ALLi’s Guide to Working with Publishers, Producers and Others

Copyright © Orna A Ross, Alliance of Independent Authors 2023, 2nd edition.

First edition, 2017.

EBOOK: 978-1-913588-36-6

PAPERBACK: 978-1-913588-37-3

LARGE PRINT: 978-1-913588-38-0

HB: 978-1-913588-39-7

AUDIO: 978-1-913588-40-3

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved.

Enquiries: [email protected]

HOW AUTHORS SELL PUBLISHING RIGHTS

ALLI’S GUIDE TO WORKING WITH PUBLISHERS, PRODUCERS AND OTHERS

PUBLISHING GUIDES FOR INDIE AUTHORS

BOOK 6

ALLIANCE OF INDEPENDENT AUTHORS

ORNA A. ROSS

CONTENTS

Introduction: Your book is bigger than a book

I. Understand rights and representation

1. What are publishing rights?

Primary rights and subsidiary rights: defining exclusivity, territory, duration, and other important terms

2. The international rights business

Entering the arena—the independence mindset and when you might benefit from partners

3. What does an author own? - Part 1

What is copyright? How long does it last? Should you register it? Are there any parts of your work that can’t be copyrighted? What is fair use? How does this relate to selling rights?

4. What does an author own? - Part 2

Copyright FAQs

5. Guiding principles for rights licensing

Four fundamentals for good business decisions

6. Assistance: agents & scouts

Who should you work with, what should you expect, and how should you choose them?

7. Assistance: Lawyers & associations

Who should you work with, what should you expect, and how should you choose them?

II. The top three rights authors can exploit

8. International rights - Part 1

Approaches and foreign rights

9. International rights - Part 2

Licensing in India and China

10. Audiobook rights

the world is listening—how to get your books into audio markets worldwide

11. Dramatization rights

The world is watching: TV, film, and plays

12. Other Subrights

Serial rights, anthology and quotation rights, reprint rights and the rights for other editions

III. Licensing your publishing rights

13. Tackling the task

Which properties will be attractive to rights buyers? How to research the market, assess your catalog and contact buyers

14. Book fairs

How rights are sold at book fairs, and how you can use these opportunities

15. Making your pitch

Understand what agents and rights buyers are looking for

16. Understanding the contract

A brief and friendly guide to fine print in rights deals

17. Negotiating and closing the deal

How to ask for changes with confidence

18. Ready to make deals

Embrace the power of publishing rights

Author’s note

Other Guides

About the Author

About ALLi

INTRODUCTION: YOUR BOOK IS BIGGER THAN A BOOK

You may have published a book, or even several, but do you understand the powerful duality of your role as both a creative producer and owner of publishing rights? As a literary creator, you are the first rights-holder and the decision-maker for your book(s) and your publishing business. For an indie author, a book is more than an ebook, print book, or audiobook; it is a suite of publishing rights that you can exploit, through trading and licensing, in addition to actually selling the book. This volume is an insider guide to such opportunities. It will help you understand what an author’s rights are, and how they are exploited in the publishing business, particularly by authors themselves.

People outside of the self-publishing sector don’t usually know that the Harry Potter ebooks and merchandizing machine Pottermore, or the novels and essays of Virginia Woolf, or novels such as The Martian or Wool which were later adapted into filmswere all self-published. The various works that have been built on those books were constructed on the bedrock of publishing rights.

Rights contracts can be intricate, covering numerous potential scenarios and specificities. Terms such as "world rights" or "first right of refusal" or "reversion clauses" might seem straightforward, but they encompass nuances that can dramatically impact an author's control over their work and income from it. Going into all those nuances and intricacies across the range of possible publishing rights is beyond the scope of this or any book, but it will explain the principles of rights agreements, what you should look out for, and how to ensure that you don't inadvertently sign away important rights.

Rights contracts rest on the legal concept of copyright, which is a form of intellectual property (IP). Both the business of publishing rights and the legal framework of copyright can be challenging to understand and negotiate. Contracts are often expressed in dense legal jargon, using, precise and technical language that has very specific legal meanings, that need a background in law to decipher.

Also, there is no such thing as international copyright, and copyright laws and publishing rights practices can vary significantly from one jurisdiction to another, complicating the international rights business. What might be standard in one jurisdiction could be illegal or unenforceable in another.

Then there's a complex interplay between different types of rights—like translation rights, film rights, merchandizing rights, and serialization rights, to name just a few. Understanding how to manage and negotiate these rights separately and collectively can be challenging, especially as different industries (publishing, film, merchandizing) have their own standard practices and contractual norms.

This book will help you understand core principles, decide when you need expert help, and what value these experts will bring to you. And it is backed by the expertise of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), the professional association for self-publishing writers, which can offer you a great deal of support in the rights arena.

My Experience in Rights Licensing

In my dim and distant past (from 2004 to 2008), I found myself getting to grips with the rights world when I worked briefly as a literary agent at Font International Writers Services and Literary Agency in Dublin. This role had emerged from my work as a writing teacher and mentor. The most talented authors taking our courses and critiques were receiving publishing offers and coming to us for advice. The contracts they were being offered were dire, offering little protection and often grabbing all rights.

My then business partner and I took ourselves off to London to study the licensing of publishing rights at The Publishing Training Center, with a view to giving better advice and hopefully winning better terms and conditions for our students. Soon we needed to formalize the representation, so we opened an agency branch. The business wrapped up in 2008 due to emigration and illness, but this experience woke me up to the terrible contracts that many rights buyers are happy to offer creatives—contracts that shortchange and sometimes hoodwink authors.

It also helped me understand when a right is worth fighting for and when it’s better to accept that copyright and IP are only partial protectors or earners for creators. Getting too legalistic is often against everyone’s interest, except the lawyers, and sometimes it’s best to move on.

So what is a publishing right? It’s the official legal permission to produce or reproduce a book in any form—as a reprint, or a movie, or in translation or some other form. Publishing rights are granted by an author, typically in the form of a license, to a publisher or producer or other rights buyers. They may then be exploited, or sold on, by that buyer, now the rights’ owner.

Indie Authors and Publishing Rights

Once upon a time, to be successful, an author had to depend on third-party rights buyers to publish their work to readers and collect revenues on the author’s behalf. That’s essentially what a basic publishing contract is—permission to turn the author’s work into a book and sell it to readers.

Today, authors can publish without ever approaching a rights buyer. That doesn’t mean that indie authors don't ever need to think about rights. While reaching readers with an ebook is relatively easy, and a right we should be very skeptical to assign to another, we are likely to welcome intermediaries when it comes to taking advantage of all the possible forms our work can take—translations, dramatizations, audio, perhaps even print in certain territories, if we want to sell in bookstores. That’s when an indie considers working with others.

You might be interested in proactively entering this area. Or you might not think about selling rights until you’re approached by a publisher or production company. The challenge, either way, is maximising your options and opportunities.

A successful creative product is always a collaborative effort and, just as we work with editors, designers, book marketers, and promotors, so we may work with rights licensors—agents, publishers, and others.

How important are these other rights?

We’ve found that many indie authors underestimate their potential, arguing that the money involved in rights and royalties is "extra" or "jam" money. Many authors focus on their own direct sales or their self-publishing commission payments from retailers like Amazon or Kobo (which, unfortunately these platforms wrongly, and confusingly refer to as royalties).

They might not realize how far their work can be divided and sold, potentially providing numerous additional income streams and, as we found in our recent indie author income survey, may even constitute the bulk of an author’s income from their writing. Treating these earnings as less than essential can actually jeopardize an author's financial stability. The decisions you make regarding rights and royalties can have long-lasting financial impact, resulting in lost income over many years, especially if a book becomes more popular over time, or finds new markets.

It’s not something that you need to think about at the beginning, but once you have worked out how to self-publish in ebook, print and perhaps audio, turning your attention to selectively licensing your rights can give your readership, income, and influence a serious boost.

Today, rights are a central stream of income for indie authors, as they are for trade-publishing. Rights buyers are increasingly working with indie authors. New York literary agent Ethan Ellenberg, ALLi's Literary Agent and Contract Advisor, says: “Book publishing remains in a state of continuous change. The traditional publishers are often too big, too understaffed to interact with even a fraction of the talented authors working today.” He sees many authors who are combining indie success with lots of individual rights licensing for audio, translation, film, TV, games, graphic novels, digital serials. “It's already happened and will happen even more.”

While a single deal might not seem like a large sum, over time and across multiple books and rights (such as foreign rights, film rights, audiobook rights, etc.), the cumulative value can be substantial. Authors need to consider the aggregate potential of their work.

Generally speaking, the more successful an indie author or a particular book, the more rights income is being generated. In ALLi’s recent income survey (see Allianceindependentauthors.org/facts/), more than 10 percent of respondents considered rights licensing to be their primary business model, with such licensing making up more than half their income. These indies are often called “hybrid authors”.

Across the range of other business models (exclusive model, wide model, creator model, or publishing other authors model), those authors who selectively license rights as well as self-publish digitally, tended to have higher incomes and a greater global reach. The most successful authors do both and find that successful rights licensing often feeds back into the success of the original, self-published book.

Beyond financial considerations, understanding the value of your rights is also about recognizing the worth of your work as a creative. It took you a long time to become an author and to create this intellectual property, a valuable asset deserving of fair compensation and protection. If you don’t ask for this compensation, you probably won’t get it.

The hardest rights sale to achieve is the first one. Success in one territory or format makes it easier to succeed in the next.

A Core Principle: Prevent the Rights Grab

Here’s an important mindset. As indie authors, we don’t let a publishing partner tie up our work without using it. We can end a business agreement and move on if it isn’t benefiting us. This is why the duration (term) and scope (territory) of an agreement is important. As is the concept of reversion of rights—taking rights back at the end of an agreement, or under certain conditions before that, so we can license to others who are more proactive. We should only ever renew a license if things are going well. We also don’t let a buyer have more rights than they will actually use.

Back when I first set out to learn about contracts for Font students, I was a typical naive author, and I found rights buying behaviors shocking. Publishers, and other rights buyers, were quick to take all rights, and keen to hold onto them. Many publishers knew they were unlikely to exercise the rights to foreign translations, or film deals, for example, but they fenced them off anyway. Those rights then languished unexploited for years, and authors who wanted to get them back often faced difficulties.

It was—and alas still is—common to see contracts granting world English-language rights and all subrights, including valuable primary rights for ebooks, in return for a paltry (or sometimes no) advance, low royalties and poor terms and conditions. The contracts were also poorly drafted, with inconsistencies and missing clauses, using ambiguous language that would make them useless in the event of a dispute, and often lacking specific terms on key issues, such as reversion of rights, the rate of royalties, and the timing of payments. The terms invariably favored the publisher, often most unfairly.

We quickly saw how much authors give away when we sign rights contracts, and how difficult and costly it can be to get rights back. Today nothing shocks me when it comes to rights buyers. As opportunities have opened up, so has the risk of writers signing bad contracts. It's very easy for a publisher to write a line in a contract to take everything—worldwide rights and all languages forever—with very little provision for the author to get these rights back if they were not exploited.

I’ve come to understand that rights buyers will always follow a “just-in-case” business model. They may not have access to certain markets now, but they might in five years’ time, so the principle is to hold all rights, if possible, even if they don't currently have the market connections to use them—or any intention of investing in them.

This means the responsibility for rights protection lies with the author, whenever we sign any kind of rights license. It’s an exceptional scenario to see a contract that voluntarily limits itself.

At ALLi, we’ve have seen authors make painful mistakes, granting all rights to a small publisher, or even a vanity publisher, for the entire life of the copyright. We’ve also seen authors seduced by offers from overseas “publishers” in countries that are not covered by copyright agreements, or where piracy is rife, or payment unlikely. And we've seen rights buyers make massive incomes from a book where the authors have received nothing.

An ALLi member, a children's book author, crafted a charming character that captivated readers, leading to adaptation into a BBC children's TV program. The show achieved significant success, and spawned a line of merchandise that continues to delight young audiences today. Happy days? Alas not. In signing a publishing contract for her book, the author unwittingly signed away all her subrights (as well as agreeing to other constrictive clauses around reversion, length of copyright etc.).

As her creation found new life and popularity on screen and in merchandise, she did not receive any royalties or recognition from these lucrative extensions. Nothing. Not one penny. And despite our best efforts, and subsequent legal attempts, the situation remains unchanged. She does not have the resources to go into a full legal campaign.

This is the most extreme story we have seen at ALLi, but every day we see contracts where authors have tied themselves into agreements that are not in their best interests (to put it at its mildest).

As you learn about, and begin to exploit, the opportunities outlined in this book, keep this core principle of preventing the rights grab in mind.

A New Era of Opportunity

It’s also true that there has never been a better time for writers to reach out to new markets, readers, listeners, and viewers. Not long ago, the rights business was conducted through personal and business relationships. If you didn’t know the right people, you couldn’t get through the door. Today, technology has dissolved some of the barriers for writers who want to sell their publishing rights.

The advent of online global platforms, social media, the internet, and email means potential licensors and licensees can engage 24/7, whatever their territory. You’ll learn how ALLi and its partner members can help you get a foothold in the rights arena, when the time is right.

First Question: Do You Have the Rights?

If you self-publish your books through platforms like Amazon KDP, Apple, Kobo, or IngramSpark, you own and retain all rights to your books and are free to trade and exploit all publishing rights. If you use an assisted self-publishing service, the same should apply. However, some such services, including those offered by literary agents, have contracts that take exclusive rights to the author’s work in all languages and formats.

If you are considering an assisted self-publishing service, and the contract asks for broad and exclusive publishing rights to your work, don’t sign. If such a contract was offered by a trade publisher, which is investing in your book, it would be questionable. But as you are the publisher, taking the risk and providing the investment to an assisted self-publishing service, such a rights grab is outrageous.

If it’s too late, and you are already bound by a poor assisted self-publishing service contract, check the termination provisions. Can you terminate the contract with notice? If yes, do you get to keep your cover design, interior files, the ISBN?

If your agreement states that you cannot terminate the contract or get back your files, please let ALLi know, as that is against our code of standards and against the spirit of copyright law. If you are an ALLi member, we will challenge the service on your behalf. We cannot guarantee a positive outcome, but we have succeeded in getting rights back for many authors.

For more information on how to choose good self-publishing options, see our second guidebook in this series, Choosing the Best Self-Publishing Companies and Services, written by the ALLi Watchdog desk. This guidebook is free for members, and available to purchase for non-members at Selfpublishingadvice.org/ChooseBestServices

When Do You Need Help?

This is a question we will return to several times in this book.

The rights market is tremendously fragmented, and becoming more so. Publishing houses and production companies come in every size and shape, from individual authors publishing other writers’ works to huge global conglomerates and Hollywood studios. Contracts also come in every shape and size. You might become quite practiced at assessing a typical contract for translation rights, and many authors develop confidence to do good translation deals without help. But other kinds of deals—for instance, movie deals—operate in a completely different world with entirely new pitfalls. Also the size, efficiency, niche, ownership, and traditions of each rights-buying company varies enormously, as does their ability to exploit an author’s work successfully.

Added to these variables, the rights landscape is global. Legal principles and their interpretation can differ dramatically, depending on jurisdiction, and also on the specifics of a situation. The law is a complex creature, as varied and nuanced as the societies it serves around the world.

All this complicates the task of choosing which rights buyer is best for a particular version of our work.

You’ll find that some opportunities are best explored independently and some will need the support of an agent. This book offers a broad overview and general information about the international rights business, but it's not a substitute for personalized professional legal advice.

If you're navigating contracts, rights and negotiations, you’ll usually need a professional advisor by your side, either a lawyer who's well versed in your local publishing IP laws and in the unique legal landscape of the publishing world, or an informed and experienced literary representative. With this book, we hope to help you decide when to fly solo and when to enlist an expert co-pilot.

We also hope to open your eyes to new avenues to give your work worldwide exposure in multiple formats. At ALLi, we hate to see authors selling themselves short, perhaps because they fail to properly value their achievements, or are ill-prepared for effective negotiations. To successfully license publishing rights means standing up for yourself. Shifts in power—for that is what’s happening here—make many people uncomfortable, sometimes even those who benefit from them.

The current shift is enormous. At the beginning of the 20th century, the US and UK publishing industries carved up territorial copyright and royalty income percentages on conditions that were very favorable to themselves, and very unfavorable to authors. Territories like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand followed their lead and conditions are as bad, or worse, in other territories. As a result, the typical income for a professional author is abysmal.

Now, in the third decade of the 21st century, we are at another turning point, and it’s worth reminding ourselves of that. We can now directly reach our readers without publishers, wholesalers or bricks-and-mortar retailers. This, and the increased incomes that many of us are enjoying as a result, is not something to undervalue, it is part of the developing publishing world. But no one should undervalue the century of expertise in book production and brand building that trade-publishing has accumulated either. We have much to offer each other.

In this time of flux, when everything is being reconfigured, it is critical that we independent authors know how to position ourselves when rights buyers and their agents come calling—as they surely will when we self-publish well.

So when it comes to your publishing rights, think and act like an entrepreneur, the investor in your own creative enterprise that you are. Embrace the role of CEO of your literary endeavors, creative and commercial director of your business as well as your books. This mindset can be transformative for you, personally and professionally, and incredibly empowering. It’s essential for successful negotiation with rights buyers.

Learning to successfully trade in rights as well as books is the seventh process of publishing, the final step in learning and skill development than an indie author goes through on their way to becoming a successful self-publisher. The other six processes, as outlined in the first book in this series, Creative Self-Publishing, and used throughout ALLi’s services and publications are: editorial, design, production, distribution, marketing, and promotion. Engaging in each of these is a process of growth, professional and personal—for a creative, business growth is personal growth and vice versa—and learning to trade your rights with clarity and confidence is no different.

See ALLi’s guide on Creative Self-Publishing to build a comprehensive indie author business. Members enjoy free access to the ebook. Non-members can purchase a copy of this guidebook at Selfpublishingadvice.org/creative.

Throughout this book, you'll find advice and best practices collected from the authors and advisors at ALLi. We’ll share strategies and techniques and stories of indie author triumphs, resilience, and lessons learned. Successful indies share a tenacity that powers them through hurdles, roadblocks, self-doubt, financial strain, and missteps. The trick is not avoiding mistakes, but learning, adapting, and keeping on. Showing up. This same spirit inspires writers, creatives, and entrepreneurs to challenge convention and imagine news ways that evolve or revolutionize how things have always been done.

How things have been done in the creative industry to date is not fair, not right, not just. When it comes to rights buying, selling, and negotiating, each of us is instrumental in creating a new, fairer, better space where far more authors are rewarded far more fairly for their work. Understanding how to exploit the commercial and creative value in our publishing rights is one of the most important steps we can take in that direction. It’s good for you and it’s good for us all, helping to break down the current system where a bestselling elite wins big and everyone else loses out.

Remember that in these challenges, you are not alone. This makes our business unique. Can you think of any other sector where so-called competitors share such a strong sense of mutual purpose? As indie authors, we are pioneers together, and together we are changing the publishing world.

My hope is that this book, and the other guidebooks in this series, will empower you to move forward with confidence and courage.

* * *

PARTI

UNDERSTAND RIGHTS AND REPRESENTATION

This section aims to explain what rights are, including international rights. We talk about what rights belong to an author, and, most importantly, the guiding principles authors need to adhere to when negotiating their rights deals. We then meet the various people in the rights arena including agents and literary scouts.

* * *

1

WHAT ARE PUBLISHING RIGHTS?

PRIMARY RIGHTS AND SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS: DEFINING EXCLUSIVITY, TERRITORY, DURATION, AND OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS

When authors set out to publish, they usually envisage their book as a print book, for sale in a physical bookstore, but it’s much more accurate—and more profitable for your business—to imagine your book as a shopping center, and you as the landlord.

Each empty shop in your center represents a set of rights. One might be print books in English, another for audiobooks in Spanish, another might be for ebooks in Mandarin, and yet another might be movie tickets and downloads.

For some authors, their rights portfolio might even, like JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, include a theme park.

Licensing not Selling

Our books sell in shops but, shopping center metaphor aside, when we trade in our publishing rights, what we are trading is a “license”, not a sale. A license confers permission to use for a fee. It does not, and should not, mean a transfer of ownership. The writer, at all times, retains ownership of the copyright, except in limited circumstances such as ghostwriting projects, where rights ownership is ceded.

As indie authors, it's vital that we keep as much control of our rights as possible. Licensing is the correct term to use in discussions with rights buyers, though they may also call it “granting” of rights (you have to learn a lot of new terms if you want to license rights).