Foreign Rights
New and potential authors tend to have questions about foreign rights, deals, how we sell books abroad, and what happens after a sale takes place. Here, Liza provides a quick introduction to foreign rights and why they matter to the life of a book. If you have any questions at the end, please feel free to leave comments below.
The easiest way to explain how we sell books abroad, and why foreign deals are so important, is with an example. Let’s say that we are representing a sweeping romance novel written by Juliet’s sassy but open-to-love cat, Luna, called PAWED & PREJUDICE. (The cover to the left was lovingly designed by Aki Schilz). It sells in the UK to a publisher who acquires UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada. This gives the publisher the rights to publish the book in the English language in the UK, and to ship it in that language through the Commonwealth and Canada.
We don’t see our job as done once we sell the rights to a UK publisher: we want the book to reach as many readers as possible across the world. In order to do this, we need to get the book into publishers’ hands from France all the way to China. To get our books as much international attention as possible, we use a three-pronged approach: Co-agents, Scouts, and Book Fairs.
First, we will send PAWED & PREJUDICE to our co-agents. Co-agents are literary agents, just like us, but they work in their respective countries, which we call territories. Some look after one territory, such as our French co-agents, which means that they will only submit PAWED & PREJUDICE for us in France. Others, such as our Eastern European co-agents, will submit in multiple territories such as Croatia, Estonia, Poland, Russia, etc.
While we know the UK industry inside and out, we recognise that this might not hold true for Japanese publishing. We want our authors and their books to have the best chance at reaching the right publishers so we work with specific co-agents who are leaders in their territories. We have worked with our specific co-agents for a long time and absolutely love them. Some examples of books we sold to great success are: THE MINIATURIST by Jessie Burton in 39 territories, GOOD ME, BAD ME by Ali Land in 26 territories (see the original cover and eight foreign editions on the right), GIRL A by Abigail Dean in 26 territories.
Second, we will send PAWED & PREJUDICE out to literary scouts. Scouts work in the UK but are hired by foreign publishers to look out for the best books to buy for translation in their territories. Scouts meet with editors, agents, then read non-stop and write book reports to keep their clients up to date on the hottest novels. If a scout recommends a book, then a foreign publisher will contact our co-agent to say they are interested in buying it. Scouts know everything about everyone, and if they love the book they can be an amazing champion for it.
To continue with or our example, let’s imagine that a German publisher, we will call them Katzen Verlag, absolutely loves PAWED & PREJUDICE after they heard about it from both their scout and our co-agent. Katzen Verlag will then make an offer to buy the German language rights to the novel. This will allow them to publish the novel in Germany and sell their German language edition where they want. For any territory, we sell rights to publish exclusively in that language which means only that publisher can translate and sell that book.
On the road to publication, a few major things will happen. Firstly, Luna will sign a contract with Katzen Verlag. This is where I come in. I will approve the contracts, make sure the terms are as favourable to the author as possible, and then once everyone is agreed, I send them to Luna for her paw stamp. Recently, COVID-19 has required the global publishing community to change from physical signatures to digital ones. E-signature has significantly sped up the process and I am pushing for it to continue as the norm so we can save time, paper, and a lot of postage!
Secondly, with contracts are underway, I begin the process of filing international tax forms on behalf of Luna. “Tax forms?!” I hear you scream in fear, “Can’t we just avoid them?” No, and I will explain why: Tax forms are used for the avoidance of double taxation. Double taxation means that Luna’s German advance will be taxed in both Germany and the UK. However, the UK has treaties with many countries so that Luna will only be taxed where she lives. By submitting the tax form I have prepared her, Luna will only have to pay her UK tax rate on income earned, and she will avoid an extra 30% tax on her money in Germany. That’s nearly 1/3 more money for Luna!
Lastly, contracts completed and tax forms underway, Katzen Verlag will translate the English edition of PAWED & PREJUDICE into German. Most publishers use inhouse translators (don’t worry authors, we will never make you translate your own books into another language!). Katzen Verlag may also decide to create their own cover for the novel. We love the artistry and creativity of foreign covers and I have included some translated editions for you here.
It is all good and well that PAWED & PREJUDICE is now sold in Germany, but we think the book has major global appeal. This brings us to the last part of our strategy to get books out internationally: Book Fairs. The London and Frankfurt Book Fairs (a blog entry unto their own), are gatherings of publishers from all over the world. Publishers, agents and scouts all congregate in the same conference hall for a week to sell and buy rights to books. At any one book fair we can meet people from 20 countries around the world. They’ll tell us the trends in their market, what they are looking for, and we’ll pitch them a few handpicked titles which we believe they will respond well to. Sometimes they say no to everything, but sometimes they get so intrigued they’ll make an offer during the meeting itself.
This is why foreign rights and deals are so important. They can completely change the life and reach of a book, altering its trajectory from a UK novel to an international bestseller with millions of readers. This means more exposure for a book, more readers, and for Luna, more kitty treats in her bowl.