Top Tips for Selling Rights

Lynette Owen is Copyright Director at Pearson Education Ltd, a major publisher of educational, academic and professional publications. She is a tutor on the three-day Selling Rights course, which is run three times a year at the Publishing Training Centre. She is also the author of Selling Rights (6/e Routledge, May 2010) and the General Editor of Clark’s Publishing Agreements: A Book of Precedents (8/e, Bloomsbury Professional, due December 2010).

1. Firstly – and obviously! - doublecheck that you are authorised to sell the rights concerned under the terms of your contract with the author.
2. Consider carefully what possibilities each project may have for rights exploitation; not all books are published with rights potential in mind. For example, it is unlikely that you will sell serial rights or film rights for an academic textbook, but it may have excellent potential for translation.
3. Does the author already have an established reputation – if so, is it in the UK alone or internationally? A new book by an established author is easier to place than a first-time book by an unknown author.
4. Potential for rights may vary from market to market; some books may have more universal appeal than others. For example, vampire novels and personal development books on how to be happy and/or wealthy currently seem to have universal appeal. Some books may be very topical and can succeed if rights are placed quickly (e.g. books on the Taliban or the war in Afghanistan). Some trends have a short shelf-life (e.g. SAS memoirs, chick lit, nostalgia titles).
5. The size and style of a book can affect rights potential. For example, in markets with low book prices, very large books or books with lavish colour illustrations may be prohibitively expensive. In other markets, buying rights in a heavily illustrated book through a co-edition may make publication viable, as the origination costs are spread amongst the co-edition partners. Be aware of cultural and political sensitivities in some markets.
6. Is the book too “local”? Prospects for a title may be limited internationally if it contains too many British textual or visual references (e.g. traffic on the left hand side of the road, red double decker buses, animals which are not familiar in some markets, etc).
7. Have a clear policy on how you offer rights – such as on an exclusive option basis or on multiple submission. Or it could be a full-scale auction (unwise unless you have a really major project).
8. Decide on your financial criteria for granting rights – do you always want your licensees to be large publishers who offer the highest advances? Sometimes a smaller publisher who makes a more modest offer will work harder and produce better results for the book. Be careful about “overselling”. A book which does not live up to the buyer’s expectations make them reluctant to buy from you again.
9. Prioritise the markets you deal with. Your ability to license worldwide may be affected by your resources in terms of staff, time and money. In some markets, consider working through subagents to extend your resources – but remember they represent many other lists, and will deduct commission from the deals they do on your behalf.
10. Attend relevant international book fairs, but choose carefully to maximise value from these events. Frankfurt and London are key international fairs, as is Bologna for children’s books – other fairs are more regional and attendance will depend on whether you want to focus on the market concerned. Book fairs offer economy of scale and a chance to undertake market research and make new contacts.
11. If time and budgets allow, do try to make sales trips to selected overseas markets to meet publishing partners in situ. You can have longer meetings and obtain a more detailed idea of their capabilities.
12. Always aim to check the reliability of new publishing partners; ask who else they deal with and check out references.
13. There is no substitute for personal contact with rights partners. E-mail and websites have revolutionised rights selling, but much business still depends on building up reliable personal relationships.