Promoting and selling rights in

Romanian titles
Lynette Owen, Copyright Director,
Pearson Education Ltd, UK
Sinaia September 23rd-24th 2011

Why sell rights?

To generate income for author and original
publisher
In some cases, to offset high author advance or
substantial origination costs (e.g. for heavily
illustrated books)
To promote author reputation
To reach wider markets
To license into non-print formats
To deter piracy

Selling rights to foreign

publishers (1)
Who controls the rights? (a) for content by
author/illustrator? (b) for any external copyright
material quoted in the book (text, photos,
illustrations etc)?
What resources do you have to sell rights: people,
time, money, rights database?
Need to identify which books travel
Need to identify potential partners through market
research : prioritise your key markets

Selling rights to foreign

publishers (2)
Making the initial contact by letter/e-mail? At
book fairs?
Preparing suitable sales material
What type of deal do you want - Translation ?
Coedition?
Will you offer as exclusive option, multiple
submission or auction?
Which books fairs are most useful?
What about sales trips?

Book fairs

Setting up appointments in advance

Conducting the meeting
Using fairs for market research
Fair events seminars, networking

Negotiating terms (1): what does

the licensee want?
Language: translation, bilingual?
What territory world or only specific markets?
For example one global English language licence
or separate UK and US licensees? Who will
undertake the translation work?
Format hardback, paperback, e-book?
Any extra subsidiary rights e.g. serial rights, book
club rights?

Negotiating terms (2): the

information you need

Details of publishing house (if new contact)

Author, title of work, edition, ISBN
Language, territory and format required
First print quantity
Expected price (retail, recommended retail
or wholesale, less any VAT)
Publication schedule

Other issues
Do they need duplicate production material?
Do they want you to print coedition copies
for them? if so, quantity?
Do they want e-book rights as well as print
rights if so, details of their plans, pricing,
financial model
Any special contractual requirements e.g. re
arbitration, applicable law, currency etc

Quoting terms
Arms length licence deal: usually an advance
against escalating royalties but on what price
retail or wholesale?
Coedition a price per copy, to include paper,
printing, binding, packing, shipment to agreed
destination but should royalty element be
included or paid separately? Timing of payment
Who will reclear permission and pay for any third
party material included in the book?

After the contract (1)

Secure signature and any payment due on
signature; tell author re deal
Supply of agreed duplicate production material
on disc? Via FTP site?
For coedition, monitor agreed stages supply of
translated text and shipping instructions, supply
and approval of proofs, supply of advance copies,
main shipment, payment at agreed stages
Check any material required for advance approval
e.g. cover, title and copyright pages, any
additional material

After the contract (2)

Monitor publication of licensed edition on time,
receipt of finished copies, correct credit to author
and original publisher, copyright
acknowledgements
Send copies to author
Monitor sales of licensed edition for life of licence
to decide whether to renew or cancel
Alert licensee to next printing (for coedition) or
revised edition (e.g. for textbooks)

Questions?
lynette.owen@pearson.com