Foreign Rights

Maximize Your Foreign Presence – Almost For Free

Translate into German

International sales are, for some titles, as much as one-third or more of book sales. But how to successfully sell your author-published book in foreign countries?

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First Step: Use an International Distributor
Never place all your eggs in one basket… Draft2Digital, for example, distributes not only ebooks but print books too – worldwide!  They not only deliver to online-  but also off-line retailers (stores) and most important: to libraries.
Draft2Digital distributes to dozens of book retailers worldwide.  Exciting news for authors who use Draft2Digital to distribute to Kobo is that they are already included in the Walmart.com storefront!  And Draft2Digital is offering fiction authors to format ebooks for free.

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Amazon’s Worldwide Online Stores
To maximize your presence in overseas Amazon Kindle stores, just set up an Author Central account in each of those country-specific sites where your book is available.
As Amazon divided the world in single countries, announce your Countdown Deals, new book launches or Free Kindle KDP Days in several languages: Order at Fiverr a short translation of ten tweets in Spanish, French, German, etc. starting at $5 / 200 words.

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Let Your Book Translate into World Languages
You can certainly just translate your book and sell it through online retailers worldwide. Most spoken languages besides English are Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, German, Russian, Russian, Portuguese, Bengali, Japanese (albeit not necessarily e-book readers) according to Wikipedia.

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The countries with the most users of eReaders, according to a survey of Bookboon are the USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Denmark
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International Book Fairs
Do not just turn up at an international book fair, hoping to sell your book. Meetings are arranged well in advance (4-6 months) with acquisitions editors at international publishing houses, to whom new projects are pitched, and new potential publisher customers can be discovered.
.

Top Publisher for French Foreign Rights
If you want to talk about foreign rights with a French publisher one of the biggest in the world, Hachette who is also partnering with Phoenix Publishing & Media Group in China and holds a 25% share of Atticus in Russia.
.

Top Publisher for Spanish Foreign Rights
– Good for the U.S.A. too!
Planeta publishing-companies leads the world’s Spanish-language publishing markets in Spain and Latin America. The company has further strongholds in Portugal and France, where it owns Editis the country’s second-largest group.
Grupo Planeta is present in 25 countries, with more than 100 imprints and a catalog of 15,000 titles.
.

Major agencies, specialized in Foreign Rights:
Knight Agency and Nelson Agency

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Choose Your Foreign Rights Agent Carefully!
Most agents charge 20% (or sometimes even 25%) on foreign sales. This 20% rate is justified because normally two agents are involved (the second one is in a foreign country), and they end up splitting the commission.  If you are not represented already: why not try to find agents or even publishers yourself in other countries, especially if you speak more than one language?
.

There are things to watch when negotiating foreign rights deals – hopefully, an agent will keep an eye on these, but it’s worth knowing about it:

  • The term of the deal: Five years is most common, anything longer then you should be expecting a premium from the publisher.
  • Country / Territory for the contract: You might sign away Portuguese language rights without realizing that it will include publication in Brazil (and Mozambique, Angola, Macau, Cape Verde, etc).
  • Also, giving worldwide Spanish language rights could cause friction with any United States publishing deal, as there is a large Spanish reading audience in the US.
  • The tax situation in your and the potential publishers country: While there are now many treaties that allow for the uninhibited flow of money between countries, you could lose some of your advances to a foreign government’s tax.
    .

Signing a Contract…
Before signing a contract with an agent or a publisher, how can you as an author tell if the company is good with foreign rights?  Ask them about their previous sales!  Contact authors who work with that publisher or agent and ask them about their experience.  It’s also possible to find out the name of foreign publishers and go to their websites and see what books they have recently published.

Find out what authors the agency represents overseas, then ask those authors about their own experiences.  Again, foreign rights are only a portion of an author’s income, so that’s something to bear in mind.  Check your agreement with a translations rights agent carefully.  Never, ever! give world rights away as standard, and you should also insist on a large upfront payment.
.

Sources:

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/how-indie-authors-sell-foreign-rights/

Easy eBook Formatting and Distribution

https://www.savvybookwriters.com/diy-selling-of-your-foreign-book-rights/

Gwen Ellery’s article provides tips from foreign agents about the cultural difference – something very important!
http://www.gwenellery.com/your-books-foreign-rights/

John Penberthy, a successful writer, who searched the internet, found contact addresses of agents in other countries and contacted them directly.
http://axiomawards.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/selling-foreign-rights-around-the-world/

Morris Rosenthal gives also great, detailed tips in his article about book contracts.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/contract.htm

Importance of Foreign Rights
http://www.columbinecommunications.com/articles/the-importance-of-foreign-rights/

How You Can Sell your Rights or Split Your Book into Single Articles: http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/why-you-should-split-your-book-apart/

John Kremer sells helpful lists and reports for authors and an e-book with an extensive list of foreign rights agents
http://www.bookmarket.com/foreign.htm

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Multiple Sales of Your Manuscript

 

Foreign Rights and translations into other languages can be a great way to leverage the value of your manuscript – but don’t expect big numbers right away.

Foreign rights belong to your book’s subsidiary rights.  Like any other sub-rights, such as audio, movies, book clubs, paperback reprints, electronic rights, foreign rights can be sold and separated from your book’s primary rights – which you totally own anyway as an independent author-publisher.
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Before you sign a contract: Always first contact your national writers’ association for further information and get legal advice from a lawyer who is specialized in copyright.  This could save you several thousand dollars – if not more.

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Let’s Start With the Revenue You Can Get from Your Book’s Retail Price:

If you sell your book on your own website ca. 90 – 95%
Selling through Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple or other online retailers: up to 70%.
Selling your manuscripts to a trade publisher, earns a (small) advance and ca. 8 – 10% royalties – but this will be subtracted from the advance and only if you “earn out” your advance, which means the book is really selling well, you receive royalties.
For most authors, the advance is all they really earn.
.

For small publishers and Indies the thought of selling their book rights internationally might be a scary one, especially if they are not familiar with the foreign publishers or haven’t attended any of the large book fairs in Europe (Frankfurt Book Fair, Leipziger Messe, London or Bologna Book Fair) or the ones even further abroad in Dubai or in Asia.
.
Some Facts Concerning Foreign Rights:

  • Publishers are going global to find growth.
  • Marketing plays an important role in foreign rights sales.
  • Foreign rights revenue is both, a global opportunity and a sales challenge.
  • In Germany for example, translation rights are around 40% (mostly from English).
  • Revenue will be an advance and approximately 6 – 12% royalty of the retail price, minus a percentage for the agent.
  • It’s also a long-term project as it takes around 18 months until the book is translated and finally available online and in bookstores.

.
So, how can you, as an author or small publisher earn more money from licensing your works in different formats and countries?  Imagine you can set up all the information about your book, including prices for different formats and contract clauses on digital platforms…
.
Global Rights Network Platforms:
Selling the rights to your books can be a lucrative business, putting local versions of your works in the hands of readers all around the world. The predominance of book fairs and back-and-forth negotiations between rights agents and editors left a gap for literary rights-holders.

Now there are online marketplaces for the 365 day 24/7 trading of book and journal rights available. Publishers of all sizes, including self-publishers, can make their book’s rights available for sale from several online profiles, allowing buyers to purchase rights based on their terms, growing income, and in many cases, creating new income streams!

.
What Are These New Digital Platforms Doing:
Automated rights selling systems, allow you to make titles available for rights transactions – worldwide – with little up-front work!

Set up your prices for rights by language, territory, format (paperback, hardcover, ebook or audio) and length of the deal.
Swap out the standard contract for your own – if you choose.
Reactivate your dormant backlist titles for rights sales and create a whole new income stream without interrupting your current rights-selling attempts through sub-agents and at book fairs!

.
How Much Does it Cost?
Once set up, your rights will be available for sale within 48 hours and you can start selling immediately after they’re life!  Several membership levels offer a variety of service options and features, some are starting as low as $30 for a year.
.

These are the Main Players: IPR License
A Marketplace for publishers to trade rights globally.  The platform offers the opportunity to monetise or find the best new content in a global marketplace.  It also acts as a copyright hub making it easier to locate copyright holders to clear permission for use of their work.
.

Let Your Book Translate into World Languages
You can certainly just translate your book and sell it through online retailers worldwide. Most spoken languages besides English are Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, German, Russian, Russian, Portuguese, Bengali, Japanese (albeit not necessarily e-book readers) according to Wikipedia.
.

Maximize Your Foreign Presence – For FREE
To maximize your presence in overseas Amazon Kindle stores, just set up an Author Central account in each of those country-specific sites where your book is available.  As Amazon divided the world in single countries, announce your Countdown Deals, new book launches or Free Kindle KDP Days in several languages: Order at Fiverr a short translation of ten tweets in Spanish, French, German etc. for $5 / 200 words. The countries with the most users of eReaders, according to a survey of Bookboon are the USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark etc.
.

International Book Fairs
Do not just turn up at an international book fair, hoping to sell your book. Meetings are arranged well in advance (4-6 months) with acquisitions editors at international publishing houses, to whom new projects are pitched, and new potential publisher customers can be discovered.
.

Top Publisher for French Foreign Rights
If you want to talk about foreign rights with a French publisher one of the biggest in the world, Hachette who are also partnering with Phoenix Publishing & Media Group in China and holds a 25% share of Atticus in Russia.
.

Top Publisher for Spanish Foreign Rights
– Good for U.S.A. too!
Planeta publishing-companies leads the world’s Spanish-language publishing markets in Spain and Latin America.  The company has further strongholds in Portugal and France, where it owns Editis the country’s second-largest group.
Grupo Planeta is present in 25 countries, with more than 100 imprints and a catalog of 15,000 titles.
.
A good idea would also be to join ALLI
New rights services are growing up online to help authors meet rights buyers directly without having to travel to a book fair and using technology to extend reach.  ALLI now has an arrangement with one of these, Pubmatch.  Members have access to Putmatch’s premium service through ALLI (usually $79.99) at the deeply discounted rate of $9.99.  Pubmatch will facilitate communication, data warehousing and the simplification of rights marketing for publishers, agents, authors and others, making it the go-to place for the international publishing community to find new titles and new talent.
.

Major agencies, specialized in Foreign Rights:

http://knightagency.net/

http://nelsonagency.com/foreign-rights/

.
Choose Your Foreign Rights Agent Carefully!
Most agents charge 20% (or sometimes even 25%) on foreign sales.  This 20% rate is justified because normally two agents are involved (the second one being in the foreign country), and they end up splitting the commission.  If you are not represented already, why not try to find agents or even publishers yourself in other countries, especially if you speak more than one language?
.

There are things to watch when negotiating foreign rights deals – hopefully, an agent will keep an eye on these, but it’s worth knowing about it:

The term of the deal: Five years is most common, anything longer then you should be expecting a premium from the publisher.
Country / Territory for the contract: You might sign away Portuguese language rights without realizing that it will include publication in Brazil (and Mozambique, Angola, Macau, Cape Verde etc). Also, giving worldwide Spanish language rights could cause friction with any United States publishing deal, as there is a large Spanish reading audience in the US.
.
Tax situation in your and the potential publishers country: While there are now many treaties which allow for the uninhibited flow of money between countries, you could lose some of your advances to a foreign government’s tax.
.
Before signing a contract with an agent or a publisher, how can an author tell if the company is good with foreign rights?  Ask about their previous sales!  Contact authors who work with that publisher or agent and ask them about their experience.  It’s also possible to find out the name of foreign publishers and go to their websites and see what books they have recently published.

Find out what authors the agency represents overseas, then ask those authors about their own experiences.  Again, foreign rights are only a portion of an author’s income, so that’s something to bear in mind.  Check your agreement with a translations rights agent carefully.  Never, ever! give world rights away as standard, and you should also insist on a large upfront payment.
.

Read more:

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/how-indie-authors-sell-foreign-rights/
https://www.savvybookwriters.com/diy-selling-of-your-foreign-book-rights/

In Gwen Ellery’s article are tips from foreign agents about the cultural difference – something very important! http://www.gwenellery.com/your-books-foreign-rights/

John Penberthy, a successful writer, who searched the internet, found contact addresses of agents in other countries and contacted them directly. http://axiomawards.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/selling-foreign-rights-around-the-world/

Morris Rosenthal gives also great, detailed tips in his article about book contracts.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/contract.htm

Importance of Foreign Rights
http://www.columbinecommunications.com/articles/the-importance-of-foreign-rights/

How You Can Sell your Rights or Split Your Book into Single Articles: http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/why-you-should-split-your-book-apart/

John Kremer sells helpful lists and reports for authors and an e-book with an extensive list of foreign rights agents http://www.bookmarket.com/foreign.htm

 

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Why and How to Sell Foreign Rights

Manarola-Italy

For small publishers and author-publishers, the thought of selling their book rights or their short stories internationally might be a scary one.  Especially if they are not familiar with foreign right sales or haven’t attended any of the large book fairs in Europe, such as the (Frankfurt Book Fair, Leipziger Buchmesse, London or Bologna Book Fair, or the ones in Dubai or Asia.

Exploiting international rights became easier than ever for author-publishers.  Writers can now engage with readers and licensees worldwide without even leaving their office.  Authors and publishers can either:

  • License their English-language or translation rights to traditional publishers located abroad – or
  • sell their book in English (or translated) directly through local distributors.
    .

Some Facts concerning Foreign Rights:

  • Publishers are going global to find growth.
  • Marketing plays an important role in foreign rights sales.
  • Foreign rights revenue is both, a global opportunity and a sales challenge.
  • In Germany for example, translation rights are around 40% (mostly from English).
  • English books have an advantage, as English is spoken by around 750 million people (first and second language) around.

.
So, how can you, as an author or small publisher earn more money from licensing your works in different formats and countries?  Imagine you can set up all the information about your book, including prices for different formats and contract clauses on digital platforms…
.

Global Rights Network Platforms
Selling the rights to your books can be a lucrative business, putting local versions of your writing into the hands of readers all around the world.  The predominance of book fairs and back-and-forth negotiations between rights agents and editors left a gap for literary rights-holders.  Now there are online marketplaces for the 365 days 24/7 trading of book and journal rights available.  Publishers of all sizes, including self-publishers, can make their book’s rights available for sale from several online profiles.  It allows authors to sell their rights based on their own terms, growing income, and in many cases, creating totally new income streams!
.

What are these new Digital Platforms Doing?
Automated rights selling systems, allow you to make titles available for rights transactions – worldwide – with little up-front work!

  • Set up your prices for rights by language, territory, format (paperback, hardcover, ebook or audio) and length of the deal.
  • Swap out the standard contract for your own – if you choose.
  • Reactivate your dormant backlist titles for rights sales and create a whole new income stream without interrupting your current rights-selling attempts through sub-agents and at book fairs!
    .

Detail Your Book’s Rights.
Decide to use the digital platform’s contract or your own. You even receive helpful hints from the digital platforms if you’re using your own contract. At PubMatch, for example, you create multipliers for different formats and contract lengths. The multipliers will tell the system to increase the amount you’ll receive for a specific format or length.
For example, if you value hardcover twice as much as paperback, put “1” for paperback and “2” for hardcover.  To negotiate each deal as it comes, put the letter “M” instead of a number.  Putting the letter M means you will be contacted with the potential buyer’s information.  After researching the potential buyer, you will be able to assign a price and complete the contract.

Choose the language, exclusivity, territory, formats available (choose one or all), contract lengths available (choose one option or many), and other contract terms like print run and royalty percentage.  Detail your individual rights available for individual titles or groups of titles that have all the same rights available.

The base price you assign will be your minimum price (or your multiplier of 1) and will go up based on your multipliers and what formats you’ve made available.
.

How Much Does it Cost?
Once set up, your rights will be available for sale within 48 hours and you can start selling immediately after they’re live!  Several membership levels offer a variety of service options and features, some are starting as low as $30 for a year.  See a video with short explanations about one of the foreign rights platforms.

.

These are the Main Players:
IPR License is an online global publishing network where you can find authors, book publishers, agents and book rights professionals from across the globe. It is a Marketplace for publishers to trade foreign rights globally.  The platform offers the opportunity to monetise or find the best new content in a global marketplace.  It also acts as a copyright hub, making it easier to locate copyright holders to clear permission for use of their work.

.

What Rights Could a Publisher Buy?  IPR lists the most common rights usually bought by foreign publishers:

  • Print Rights
  • Right to publish in print format.
  • Digital Rights
  • Right to publish in digital format.
  • First Serialization
  • Rights common to high-profile non-fiction. They are usually sold to newspapers/magazines prior to publication.
  • Second Serialization
  • These rights are similar to First Serial – except that they happen later.
  • TV, Film & Dramatisation
  • Rights cover companies who want to dramatize your work for television, film or radio play.
  • Digest
  • Right to cover publication of condensed or abridged versions of your book.
  • Radio & TV Straight Reading
  • A straight reading for Radio and TV is different from a TV or film dramatization and can be sold separately.
  • Book Club: Right for Book Clubs to receive high discounts from publishers in exchange for committing to a certain number of copies.
  • Audio: Right to record the full, verbatim text of your book for sale on tape, CD or digital download.  Abridged rights can also be sold.
  • Large Print: Right to print in large print format for those unable to access regular print.
    .

In case you prefer to work with a foreign rights agency, there is the New York-based Trident Media Group, which has the largest dedicated foreign rights department in the literary agency business and a record unmatched by any other literary marketplace – according to their statements.  They accept submissions from authors, agents, and publishers who would like to take part in Trident’s foreign rights or audio offerings. Other foreign rights agencies would be the KnightAgency or NelsonAgency.  Choose your foreign rights agent carefully!

Be aware that most agents charge 20% commission (and sometimes even 25%) on foreign sales.

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Author Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote in one of her blogs: “All the “Foreign Rights” agent does, is to compile a new releases list (usually three times a year) and send it to all the foreign rights agents they partner with. Yes, if you’re one of the big bestsellers, the agent will hand-sell your book to the foreign rights agent, but usually, foreign publishers will come calling anyway.”

“Some agents actually go to overseas book fairs and talk to foreign rights publishers.  The agent pitches their agency and then hands the publisher a list of available works.  That’s all.”  She also explains all the financial trouble authors might get into when dealing with agencies.
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The Solution: “You can handle your foreign rights yourself, faster, better, and without losing any copyright or having someone to pay handsomely.  This world is very small now. You can contact foreign publishers directly.”
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Writer Douglas Smith gives this advice:
“The Definition of a Valid Foreign Language Market: A market that accepts unsolicited submissions in English of stories that first appeared in English language markets, and translates them at no cost to the author. Response times can also be very long. But remember that you can submit simultaneously to several of these markets since the rights that they purchase are specific to their language and don’t conflict with other foreign markets. In addition, most will respond to email queries regarding the status of your submission.”

He offers a valuable “Foreign Market List” of over 70 markets, sorted by countries, on his website. “Before you run to the list and grab a market, first read his great pieces of advice here how to choose where to submit your writing.

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DIY Selling of Your Foreign Book Rights

Foreign-Rights
There’s so much more to publishing than just printing a book and putting it into shops – brick-and-mortar or online.  For small publishers and Indies the thought of selling their book rights internationally might be a scary one, especially if they are not familiar with the foreign publishers or haven’t attended any of the large book fairs in Europe (Frankfurt Book Fair, Leipziger Messe, London or Bologna Book Fair) or the ones even further abroad in Dubai or in Asia.
.
Some Facts concerning Foreign Rights:

  • Publishers are going global to find growth.
  • Marketing plays an important role in foreign rights sales.
  • Foreign rights revenue is both, a global opportunity and a sales challenge.
  • In Germany for example, translation rights are around 40% (mostly from English)
    .

So, how can you, as an author or small publisher earn more money from licensing your works in different formats and countries?  Imagine you can set up all the information about your book, including prices for different formats and contract clauses on digital platforms…
.

Global Rights Network Platforms:
Selling the rights to your books can be a lucrative business, putting local versions of your works in the hands of readers all around the world.  The predominance of book fairs and back-and-forth negotiations between rights agents and editors left a gap for literary rights-holders.
Now there are online marketplaces for the 365 day 24/7 trading of book and journal rights available.  Publishers of all sizes, including self-publishers can make their book’s rights available for sale from several online profiles, allowing buyers to purchase rights based on their terms, growing income, and in many cases, creating new income streams!

.
What are these new Digital Platforms Doing:
Automated rights selling systems, allow you to make titles available for rights transactions – worldwide – with little up-front work!

  • Set up your prices for rights by language, territory, format (paperback, hardcover, ebook or audio) and length of the deal.
  • Swap out the standard contract for your own – if you choose.
  • Reactivate your dormant backlist titles for rights sales and create a whole new income stream without interrupting your current rights-selling attempts through sub-agents and at book fairs!

.
Detail Your Book’s Rights.
Decide to use the digital platform’s contract or your own. You even receive helpful hints from the digital platforms if you’re using your own contract. At PubMatch for example you create multipliers for different formats and contract lengths. The multipliers will tell the system to increase the amount you’ll receive for a specific format or length.  For example, if you value hardcover twice as much as paperback, put “1” for paperback and “2” for hardcover.  To negotiate each deal as it comes, put the letter “M” instead of a number.  Putting the letter M means you’ll be contacted with the potential buyer’s information.  After researching the potential buyer, you will be able to assign a price and complete the contract.

Choose the language, exclusivity, territory, formats available (choose one or all), contract lengths available (choose one option or many), and other contract terms like print run and royalty percentage. Detail individual rights available for individual titles or groups of titles that have all the same rights available.
The base price you assign will be your minimum price (or your multiplier of 1) and will go up based on your multipliers and what formats you’ve made available

.
How Much Does it Cost?
Once set up, your rights will be available for sale within 48 hours and you can start selling immediately after they’re live!  Several membership levels offer a variety of service options and features, some are starting as low as $30 for a year.  See a video with short explanations about one of foreign rights platforms.
.

These are the Main Players:
It’s an online global publishing network where you can find authors, book publishers, agents and book rights professionals from across the globe.

IPR License
A Marketplace for publishers to trade rights globally.  The platform offers the opportunity to monetise or find the best new content in a global marketplace.  It also acts as a copyright hub making it easier to locate copyright holders to clear permission for use of their work.
.

What Rights Could a Publisher Buy?
IPR lists the most common rights usually bought by foreign publishers:

  • Print Rights
    Right to publish in print format.
  • Digital Rights
    Right to publish in digital format.
  • First Serialisation
    Rights common to high profile non-fiction. They are usually sold to newspapers/magazines prior to publication.
  • Second Serialisation
    These rights are similar to First Serial – except that they happen later.
  • TV, Film & Dramatisation
    Rights cover companies who want to dramatise your work for television, film or radio play.
  • Digest
    Right to cover publication of condensed or abridged versions of your book.
  • Radio & TV Straight Reading
    A straight reading for Radio and TV is different from a TV or film dramatisation and can be sold separately.
  • Book Club
    Right for Book Clubs to recieve high discounts from publishers in exchange for committing to a certain number of copies.
  • Audio
    Right to record the full, verbatim text of your book for sale on tape, CD or digital download.  Abridged rights can also be sold.
  • Large Print
    Right to print in large print format for those unable to access regular print.

.
In case you want rather work with a foreign rights agency, there is the New York-based Trident Media Group, which has the largest dedicated foreign rights department in the literary agency business and a record unmatched by any other literary marketplace – according to their statements.  They accept submissions from authors, agents and publishers who would like to take part in Trident’s foreign rights or audio offerings. Other foreign rights agencies would be: KnightAgency or NelsonAgency.  Choose your foreign rights agent carefully!
Most agents charge 20% (or sometimes even 25%) on foreign sales. This 20% rate is justified because normally two agents are involved (the second one being in the foreign country), and they end up splitting the commission.
.
It is always good to speak several languages, which makes it easier to find publishers in other countries.

.
Not convinced?  There is always AmazonCrossing
Touted as the new leader in translation publication.  Crossing is one of Amazon Publishing’s 14 trade imprints – not a part of the self-publishing platform.  Their goal is to find work in languages that are traditionally under-represented in translation.  A recent release, Winter Men, is a critically praised novel by the Danish author Jesper Bugge Kold, just released by AmazonCrossing in both German and in English.
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The AmazonCrossing submissions portal is still wide open for proposals. However, AmazonCrossing is the one who makes the money in the end – contrary to the opportunities authors have now with digital selling placing of their rights.

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More on foreign rights here:

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/foreign-book-rights-multiple-sales-of-your-manuscript/  and here:

http://selfpublishingadvice.org/how-indie-authors-sell-foreign-rights/

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Outlook: 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair

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Frankfurt.
The Frankfurt International Book Fair 2015, the most important in the world, will take place from October 14 – 18.  Here are a couple of tips for authors who attend – an overwhelming experience – strolling through the huge fairgrounds and go afterwards for an “Apple-Woi”.

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“International Self-Publishing and Author Programme”
For the third time, Indie authors and self-publishing companies are invited to Hall 6 on Saturday, October 17 for a day-long program (9am – 5pm) on new developments and opportunities for self-publishers.  Self-publishing has grown around the world to become a strong and vibrant community. It has become a tradition over the last three years for international indie authors and service companies to meet on Saturday of the Frankfurt Book Fair.  In 2014, authors from over 30 countries attended.  Don’t forget: the Frankfurt Intl. Book Fair is also the place to find Foreign Rights agents, and international publishers!
For questions please contact German Book Office New York, Inc., Michelle Turnbach, email: turnbach@book-fair.com

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Free Admission for Refugees
The Frankfurt Book Fair offers free admission and tours for refugees.  Native speakers will be showing them around on October 17 and 18, according to Juergen Boos from the Frankfurt Fair.  More about this offer in German language at Spiegel Online.

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Business Club Sessions

  • one-on-one consulting from Lynette Owen, a famous book rights expert, who has written several books on negotiating book rights. Or this one:
  • “Learnings from the Best PR Flops” by three German-language public relations pros.

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Guests of Honor
Indonesia: 17,000 Islands of Imagination. Meet authors and books of a world between myths, mysticism and modernity.  See two short videos about literature in Indonesia.
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Pre-Event on Tuesday, Oct 13
Don’t miss the seven markets for international business, and include strong and vibrant publishing regions, such as China, Turkey, USA, Germany, South Korea, Mexico and Indonesia. Download the free White Paper for these publishing markets here.

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Class Room of the Future
Are you a teacher, or somewhat involved in education?  Meet developers and providers of innovative educational content, such as interactive learning and whiteboard software, suppliers of innovative teaching and learning concepts, online learning tools, mobile learning, e-learning solutions, web applications.
Visit the exclusive stage for exhibiting and presenting digital products for the education sector!

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Industry Insights, Inspiration, International Trends
International experts present and highlight leading trends and forecasts for the media industry.  Business Ticket holders have the opportunity to meet international decision makers and pioneers in the industry. Get connected: every day in the Business Club starts with a Business Breakfast and ends with a Happy Hour  : )

Get a Speakers Overview, just click on their pic and read more what their presentations are about.
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Get an Impression of the Fair
See a life Video from the International Frankfurt Book Fair on YouTube.
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More Tips for your Visit:
To make your book fair visit even more pleasant:

  • Wear Comfortable Shoes
  • Bring Water Bottles and a Sandwich or Chocolate (long lines, high prices)
  • Don’t forget your Business Card (lots of Fishbowls to win something)

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There are two different tickets for trade visitors available:

1. Trade visitor ticket
Access to the Frankfurt Book Fair from 9 am – 6.30 pm

2. Trade visitor ticket BUSINESS
Access to the Frankfurt Book Fair from 8 am – 8 pm
The Business Club at the Frankfurt Book Fair offers its members a comprehensive range of valuable services and a whole new way to experience the Book Fair.
Both types of tickets include free public transportation within the Frankfurt/ Rhine-Main area. Which brings me to another topic: Transportation.  It is very easy to use the many subways and trams in Frankfurt. There is no need to book an expensive hotel room near the center.  Discover many great hotels in cities and towns around Frankfurt, such as Wiesbaden, Offenbach, Bad Homburg and each one has a fast-train connection to the fair.  One year I even stayed at a beautiful castle in Darmstadt for an amazingly low price and reached the fair in less than 30 minutes – very comfortable and convenient.

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Stay at Least Two More Days in Frankfurt
There is so much to do and to see, from the famous medieval city centre “The Roemer” to the “Goethehouse”, the “Palmengarten”, modern art museums and certainly day-trips into the Rhine wine villages with their many enchanting castles.  Get some suggestions here. Last but not least try the local fare and the famous apple cider (Apple Woi).

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If you would like to get a mentor and our support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer for three months all this and more for only $179 – or less than $2 per day!  Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting / Book Marketing for your success: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

To learn more about professional book marketing and publishing, please read also “Book Marketing on a Shoestring
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

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17 Bestseller Tips – from Trade Publishers

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Bestseller-List

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If you ever see Marketing and Advertising from traditional puplishers, it’s for their Bestseller authors only, such as: Advance Book Reviews, posted on their book’s cover, Book Tours and Signings of celebrity authors, media coverage including reviews, speaking engagements, and placing at major bookstores who report to Bestseller lists.  How can author-publishers use the methods of global trade publishers to promote their self-published books?  You don’t need to travel to the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, like Johannes Kepler did in 1620 – yes, self-publishing was en vogue already four hundred years ago!

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7 Million Self-Published Titles:  Stiff Competition
Since 2010 roughly 7 million new self-published books appeared, almost all at online retailer’s websites.  And these titles will be offered for many years to come, as most of them are in digital format. The “gold rush” seems to be over and self-publishing has been dropping almost 50% per year, obviously “separating the wheat from the chaff”.  You’re not a New York Times bestselling author. You don’t have a publicist. And your Amazon sales numbers are awful. Should you quit writing books?  No, absolutely not!

For those of you who want to succeed at self-publishing, use also some traditional marketing methods, create a Business Plan and a Budget, including anywhere from 5-10% for your overall book marketing, including website, paying for IT help, designer, or Google ads.
Traditional publishing uses multiple ways to promote. Self-published authors attempt to market their books to the entire world via Amazon, social media, and their website it seems.  Publishers select books in order to stay in business, and also to determine what the publishing house’s identity is.  Here’s how you can copy traditional ways to market – adjusted to self-publishing.  One step at a time, but continually every day – split in small tasks.
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1. Start Early
Market Research – the very first step to do!  An editor will need to make a case that the book fills a market need. And to do that, the publishing house will look carefully at what’s out there. Has the competition a recent publication in this sub-genre? Does it have similar scope? Is it widely available?

Authors, and especially self-publishing authors need to study their competition carefully too:  Read their books, study book covers, pricing, reviews, and the marketing of competing books. The most powerful and essential steps you can take toward promoting your book begins long before the actual writing of the book. At least two years before the book is published, start building a network of supporters and reviewers.
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2. Print!
Traditional publishers concentrate on print books, which still make up for about 60% of the book market, depending if you look at book sales numbers or revenue per book.  Audio Books: The audio-book market is certainly growing, and Trade Publishers are not only investing in digital (even so it took them a very long time) books, but also in audio-books.

E-book authors might be happy with their sales on Amazon, Apple, Kobo or Barnes & Noble. You might have even turned it into an audio book. But the questions for a “real” book, paper back or hard-cover copy from conservative friends or elderly family members are nagging… And wouldn’t it be nice to walk into a Chapters or Baker & Taylor or one of these rare independent book shops and see your book in the shelf?  You will not earn a fortune, not even a living, but for a couple of months it is a nice pocket change. Only months… yes, because longer than this, barely any book will stay in the book store, unless it really is a bestseller and gets re-printed. If you go the indie route and choose for example the POD services and worldwide distribution through Lightning Source, (provided you have at least 3 books to be considered a small publisher) your book is printed on demand and will never get discarded (good: no-return-policy in POD worldwide distribution). See this article How to Distribute Your Book Worldwide.
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3. Book Sales at many outlets
Imagine you could buy all books from Penguin only in one book chain… Publishers distribute their books to as many outlets as possible, to brick-and-mortar stores, independent book sellers, mass markets, online book sellers, even via Affiliate programs.

Authors: Sell your books, e-books and audio-books not only through Amazon, but as well on Barnes&Noble, Apple and Kobo websites, to have your “eggs in more than one basket”. And don’t forget the potentially huge potential market for hardcover books, selling them to libraries all over the country!  However, there are way more online retailers for e-books and books than just Apple , Sony, Diesel, Kobo or Barnes & Noble.  Sign up with a book distributor / fulfillment company for your print-version of the book. Distributors mostly require just three books to be listed as a publishing business, and if authors have not written three books yet, they can band together with other authors to reach this minimum.  Traditional publishers and the books of their authors can be found on Bowker’s global database of books.  How to get into “Books in Print”, a worldwide database and to register your book for FREE! with Bowker is the topic of another blog posts.

Books available for future publishers:  Aaron Shepard has written two books about the topic of book distribution: POD for Profit and Aiming at Amazon, both contain very detailed information for small publishers. Another great source is Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual, a classic publishing guide-book.
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4. Sell books to Libraries
All traditional publishers sell their books to libraries.

According to statistics from the American Library Association and the Book Industry Study Group, libraries yearly purchase books for nearly $2 billion. But not only books, also audio-books and other forms of publications. Around 95% from major publishers.  Imagine, you sold your $15 book at a 50% discount to only 10% of these libraries, you will earn more than $75,000. But how can you tap into the lucrative library market?  It is explained in detail, including valuable links of wholesale companies who sell to libraries, on SavvyBookWriters here and here.
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5. Book Shows & Fairs
Representation at the applicable trade shows includes bookseller trade shows like the Bookseller Expo America (BEA) or one of the regional bookseller shows, like the New England Booksellers Association, Book Shows for the Library Association (ALA) and certainly the world’s most important, the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany every October.

Which Book Fairs or other Literary Events will you attend in the coming months to present your work?  How to organize your participation and how to attract visitors is explained in detail in this blog post, pointing out the do’s and don’ts at book fairs.

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6. Book Signings
An author tour can take various forms. Two weeks of travel, flights from city to city, an author appearance every day, twice a day if possible.  Publishers often make their choice on the basis of three factors:  if the book can sell in quantity in bookstores; if the book can be reviewed in newspapers, not simply journals;  and if the author is presentable.

How you can organize your own book signing is explained in detail, even with a time-table, here on this blog post at SavvyBookWriters.com/blog
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7. Book Clubs
Traditional Book Publishers sometimes sponsor book clubs, or invite them to participate in a contest, such as the one offered by Random House of Canada “Book Clubs are Beautiful”.  Members suggests four or five books that they must have read and then the voting and lobbying begins until they’ve got their list. member suggests four or five books that they must have read and then the voting and lobbying begins until they’ve got their list.

Authors on the book clubs list have attended a meeting or contacted them by phone or email. Writers can find easily contact addresses of book clubs via Google. Offer them a free copy of your book, just as big publishers do. Don’t overlook virtual book clubs at Goodreads, Wattpad, Bibliophile etc.
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8. Writing Contests
Many published authors compete in writing contests, and publishing houses sometimes organize contests.

How to Get More Readers from an Award:  Publicity around a book award will boost your book sales. Contests are a great way to hone your craft and show the world how much better you are than other writers. Winning a book award for your self-published fiction or nonfiction book is a great way to gain recognition and approval. You will not only see an increase in your book sales – if you market it well – you also can add the award sticker to your cover and mention the achievement on your back cover, in your books’ description, and in all your marketing and promotions – online or offline. 25 Writing Competitions You Should Enter
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9. Content Writing for magazines & newspapers
World-famous bestseller writers from big publishing houses, such as Ernest Hemingway, Margaret Atwood, Tom Chiarella, Gloria Steinem and Stephen King did it: Writing occasionally short stories and magazine articles – before blogs became fashionable.

Your book has been launched months ago or even last year. NOW readers need to see something NEW from you. It doesn’t need to be a whole new book:
The three main assets you have already
– your writing skills
– the content you already penned
– the research you have done for your book(s) can be used to write at least 20 – 30 articles or blog posts – and if regularly posted on Google+ it is raising your Search Engine Ranking on Google tremendously.

More benefits of writing content:
– it is a subtle way to promote your book
– you receive valuable back links to your website or blog
– you will have lots of possibilities to post on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook.
– include links to your articles in email newsletter (that you hopefully send out regularly to your readers)

Post these articles on your blog or contribute guest blogs to other sites that are focused on the same topics as your book.
Content is used to draw in your ideal readers / reviewers, it will link to your book sales page or your website and it helps a lot to build a platform. Last but not least it gives you a lot of material to post and to tweet. The result: you will increase your exposure, show your writing skills, grow a loyal following and attract reviewers – in one sentence: you will achieve success with your writing – and in many cases, even get paid for it.
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10. Press Kits on your website
Bestseller authors at traditional publisher have the support of the publisher’s in-house (or out-sourced) publicity department. How much publicity support depends on many factors, but there are the basic elements that a publicity department will likely provide:  Book Press Materials.  Near publication date, the book’s publicist will email the electronic version of the press kits to a large number of applicable editors and producers to garner interest in the book. Book Media Follow-Up is the next step. The book publicist will follow up with any media outlet that responds to the mailings or e-mailings, will mail additional copies of the finished book, and will make additional calls or emails to other outlets to remind them the book is in their in-box.

To get the word out about the upcoming book launch, to receive positive articles in newspapers., magazine, book blogs, or to get interviews, writers should professionally deal with anyone who could tout their book – not only national press or TV.  Don’t make these common errors:  Not having a press page on your website for example.  Unfortunately most writers are not aware that journalists, bloggers or radio hosts need a bit more information than what they see on your Amazon page. And they won’t just copy and paste your “about the author” or the description of your book on the sales page. Check out Stephen Kings website, see how he organized his page for the media, where journalists can download high-resolution press photos.

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11. Advance Book Reviews in magazines and newspapers
Did you ever wonder why brand new books had already reviews?  New author-publishers can learn a lot in book stores:  Check out how professionally published books look like: Many of these trade books have either on their back cover (paperback) or on their binding flap (hard cover) several snippets of the book reviews, as well as endorsements from bestselling writers or other professionals, that were already written before the book was printed.
Traditional publishers may budget anywhere from fifty to several hundred “free and review” copies. Advance Review Copies (ARC’s) are what they send out half a year before book launch date.

How these pre-editions Galleys) are produced and to whom they should be sent is explained in How to Get Reviews Before Your Books Launch.  Prepare your book review query well in advance and learn what to avoid when pitching to reviewers.  Valuable tips can be found at Prestigious Reviews and How to Get Them.
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12. Radio Interviews
Bestseller authors often appear as guest at TV or radio stations. Publicists for major publishing houses have longstanding contacts to their editors and arrange interviews for bestseller authors.

Authors can go the same route, starting with internet radio stations, such as this one: The Book Report.  Don’t forget when you plan the marketing of your public events, to announce it for free on Google+ and on Goodreads, use their free Event pages.

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13. Speaking Engagements
Keynote Speakers and Motivational Speakers get handsomely paid, often $10.000 to 15,000 for a two-hour speech!  Most celebrity authors, found as speakers, are writing Non-Fiction books.

Speaker agencies, or organizers of Writers Conferences are the best approach if you want to earn more with speaking engagements than with your book.  If you are really serious about publicly speaking, join first Toastmasters.com and then the Certified Speaking Professional Association where you can get certification in public speaking.

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14. Foreign Rights
Basic subsidiary rights that publishers contract with their authors include translation into foreign languages, foreign rights, and reprint of selections by other publishers, just to name a few. An American publisher may also license a book to a British house for separate English-language publication in the UK and the Commonwealth

Foreign Rights  as well as translations into other languages can be a great way to leverage the value of your manuscript – but don’t expect big numbers right away. Additionally, it will add an international, professional image to you and your books. Revenue will be an advance and approximately 6 – 10% royalty of the retail price, minus percentage for the agent. Try to get the highest advance possible. It’s also a long-term project as it takes around 18 months until the book is translated and finally available online and in bookstores – and another half year for royalties to arrive.
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15. Bookstore Placement
Placement in bookstores, both chain and local (especially bookstores that report numbers to the Bestsellers List)  William Germano explains in his book:
Trade publishers’ marketing departments issue all kinds of catalogs to promote books—ones you see and ones you won’t unless you’re a librarian or a bookseller. The trade catalog is a publisher’s principal tool for making sales to bookstores.  Publishers with two trade catalogs bring out one per publishing season. The fall season usually begins in September and continues through the winter. The spring season begins in February or March, and continues through the summer. Books to be announced in a catalog must be securely in place at the publishing house up to a year ahead.

For those of you who want to succeed at self-publishing, use also some traditional marketing methods, create a Business Plan and a Budget, including anywhere from 5-10% for your overall book marketing including your website, paying for IT help, designer, or ads.

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16. Placement of books in big box stores
Wandering into a Walmart or Shoppers DrugMart outlet, you will most likely find close to the entrance / cashier desk the shelves of magazines and books, often from Bestseller authors. Big publishing houses sell tons of books to these big box stores – at steep discounts I must add.

If your books are selling like hot cakes, consider selling in bulk too.  Book wholesalers or websites such as ChainStoreGuide.com and TheSalesmansGuide.com, provide contact information for hundreds of buyers. You could also visit the websites of your most coveted outlets. Target even maintains a “vendor hotline” to answer questions by phone. However, be aware that having at least a dozen books is the minimum before you approach buyers at big box stores. They will not order single titles. If you have a book that should go into a specific department, for instance Sporting Goods, Electronics, Childrens, etc. contact your local store manager and ask who the buyer is for that specific department.

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17. Book Sales Page
Many big publishers and major online retailers sell from their own website print and digital books – and so can you!  How?

Get all the information you need to start selling your books from our former article:  How to Sell Your Books From Your Own Website.
Make at least 30% more on your books. Get your revenue immediately and get to know your readers, a very important point for your future marketing and to keep in contact with your customers.
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Conclusion:
This is just a small selection of the many book marketing activities that authors can copy from major publishers – beside Social Media networking.  “Just Because You Wrote a Book, Readers Won’t Line Up To Buy It!”  Yet, authors who take their publishing endaveor seriously and work as hard on their publishing business as they do on their writing, will always succeed. Read this article regarding the “Book Sales Plateau”.
Find many more detailed tips and links to all aspects of author-publishing and book marketing at SavvyBookWriters, especially how you can act like a professional publisher and take your books to the next level.  Remember that you don’t have to do all of this at once!

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,100 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
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Tagged: 7 million new self-published books, book marketing activities, Book Reviews in magazines and newspapers, Book Sales Page, Book Shows & Fairs, book signings, bookstore placements, radio interviews, Writing Contests

Foreign Book Rights: Multiple Sales of Your Manuscript

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Europe
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Foreign Rights as well as translations into other languages can be a great way to leverage the value of your manuscript – but don’t expect big numbers right away. Revenue will be an advance and approximately 6 – 10% royalty of the retail price, minus percentage for the agent. It’s also a long-term project as it takes around 18 months until the book is translated and finally available online and in bookstores.

Foreign rights belong to your book’s subsidiary rights.  Like other sub-rights, such as audio, movies, book clubs, paperback reprints, electronic rights, foreign rights can be sold and separated from your book’s primary rights – which you totally own anyway as an independent author-publisher.
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Before you sign a contract: Always first contact your national writers’ association for further information and get legal advice from a lawyer who is specialized in copyright. This could save you several thousand dollars – if not more.

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Let’s Start With the Revenue You Can Get from Your Book’s Retail Price:
Earning possibilities for your book.

  • If you sell your book on your own website ca. 90 – 95%
  • Selling through Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple or other online retailers: up to 70%
  • Selling your manuscripts to a trade publisher, earns a (small) advance and ca. 8 – 10% royalties – but this will be subtracted from the advance and only if you “earn out” your advance, which means the book is really selling well, you receive royalties.
    For most authors the advance is all they really earn.

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If You Want to Let Your Book Translate in World Languages
You can certainly just translate your book and sell it through online retailers worldwide. Most spoken languages beside English (albeit not necessarily e-book readers) are Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, German, Russian, Russian, Portuguese, Bengali, Japanese according to Wikipedia.
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Start With Maximizing Your Foreign Presence – For FREE
To maximize your presence in overseas Amazon Kindle stores, just set up an Author Central account in each of those country-specific sites where your book is available.  As Amazon divided the world in single countries, announce your Countdown Deals, new book launches or Free Kindle KDP Days in several languages: Order at http://www.Fiverr.com a short translation of 10 tweets in Spanish, French, German etc. for $5 / 200 words. The countries with the most usage of eReaders, according due to a survey of Bookboon are USA, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark etc.
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A good idea would also be to join ALLI   
New rights services are growing up online to help authors meet rights buyers directly without having to travel to a book fair and using technology to extend reach. ALLi now has an arrangement with one of these, Pubmatch. Members have access to Putmatch’s premium service through ALLI (usually $79.99) at the deeply discounted rate of $9.99.  Pubmatch will facilitate communication, data warehousing and the simplification of rights marketing for publishers, agents, authors and others, making it the go-to place for the international publishing community to find new titles and new talent.
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International Book Fairs
Do not just turn up at an international book fair, hoping to sell your book. Meetings are arranged well in advance (4-6 months) with acquisitions editors at international publishing houses, to whom new projects are pitched, and new potential publisher customers can be discovered.  
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Top Publisher for French Foreign Rights
If you want to talk about foreign rights with a French publisher one of the biggest in the world, Hachette who are also partnering with Phoenix Publishing & Media Group in China and holds a 25% share of Atticus in Russia.
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Top Publisher for Spanish Foreign Rights – Good for U.S.A. too!
Planeta leads the world’s Spanish-language publishing markets in Spain and Latin America. The company has further strongholds in Portugal and France, where it owns Editis, the country’s second-largest group. Grupo Planeta is present in 25 countries, with more than 100 imprints and a catalogue of 15,000 titles.
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Major agencies, specialized in Foreign Rights:

http://knightagency.net/

http://nelsonagency.com/foreign-rights/

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Choose your foreign rights agent carefully!
Most agents charge 20% (or sometimes even 25%) on foreign sales. This 20% rate is justified because normally two agents are involved (the second one being in the foreign country), and they end up splitting the commission. If you are not represented already, why not try to find agents or even publishers yourself in other countries, especially if you speak more than one language?
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There are things to watch when negotiating foreign rights deals – hopefully an agent will keep an eye on these, but it’s worth knowing about it:

  • Term of the deal:  Five years is most common, anything longer then you should be expecting a premium from the publisher.
  • Country / Territory for the contract: You might sign away Portuguese language rights without realizing that it will include publication in Brazil (and Mozambique, Angola, Macau, Cape Verde etc).  Also, giving worldwide Spanish language rights could cause friction with any United States publishing deal, as there is a large Spanish reading audience in the US.
  • Tax situation in your and the potential publishers country: While there are now many treaties which allow for uninhibited flow of money between countries, you could lose some of your advance to a foreign government’s tax.
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Before signing a contract with an agent or a publisher, how can an author tell if the company is good with foreign rights? Ask about their previous sales!  Contact authors who work with that publisher or agent and ask them about their experience. It’s also possible to find out the name of foreign publishers and go to their web sites and see what books they have recently published.

Find out what authors the agency represents overseas, then ask those authors about their own experiences. Again, foreign rights are only a portion of an author’s income, so that’s something to bear in mind. Check your agreement with a translations rights agent carefully.  Never, ever! give world rights away as standard, and you should also insist in a large upfront payment.
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Read more:

How to Sell Foreign Rights
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/how-to-sell-foreign-book-rights/

In Gwen Ellery’s article are tips from foreign agents about the cultural difference – something very important!  http://www.gwenellery.com/your-books-foreign-rights/

John Penberthy, a successful writer, who searched the internet, found contact addresses of agents in other countries and contacted them directly.  http://axiomawards.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/selling-foreign-rights-around-the-world/

Morris Rosenthal gives also great, detailed tips in his article about book contracts. http://www.fonerbooks.com/contract.htm

Importance of Foreign Rights
http://www.columbinecommunications.com/articles/the-importance-of-foreign-rights/

How You Can Sell your Rights or Split Your Book into Single Articles: http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/why-you-should-split-your-book-apart/

John Kremer sells helpful lists and reports for authors and an e-book with an extensive list of foreign rights agents  http://www.bookmarket.com/foreign.htm

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Tagged: book sales territories, Foreign Book Rights, Foreign Right Sales, foreign rights, foreign rights agent, foreign rights lawyer, John Kremer, North American first serial rights, publisher overseas, Second serial rights

Are You Sure You Know Your Rights As Author?

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Racoon

Smart Racoon

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If you are serious about being a writer, you need to know a bit about the business. Let’s start with your rights as an author and how to read a publishing contract, in case you are not an author-publisher, keeping ALL your rights.

Anne Rooney summed it nicely up: “Publishing is a business and no matter how friendly and reassuring your editor, they want to make as much money out of the deal as they can. If “it’s just the standard contract” you say that’s fine as a starting point, but now you are going to make it suitable to you and your book. If they say “no one has ever objected before” that means either they are lying or no one ever has read the contract properly and taken a professional approach.”
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As an author you own the copyright, and you own all the rights to your work. You can sell – or give away these rights or use in several ways:
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First Serial Rights
They can be print or electronic and mean you are selling a publisher the right to publish your article once for the first time. In the case of print rights you are free to immediately sell the piece to an e-magazine or e-zine before print publication and, after the print magazine containing your article hits the newsstand, you are free to sell it again as a reprint to other print markets.

First Serial Rights Electronic
However, first serial electronic rights are different – for sample e-magazines or e-zines buy first rights for an exclusive time period, usually one year (often for the laughable amount of $5 or $10), and at the same time, ask for non-exclusive rights after that. While you can immediately sell the same piece to a print market as a “first print right,” you cannot even post the article on your own website until the year is up. After that you are free to sell the article to other electronic markets as a reprint and post it yourself online everywhere you want.

North American first serial rights
Most Canadian and US freelance authors sell North American first serial rights, reserving the right to sell in other world markets  (e.g. Great Britain, Australia, Asia). Specify what type of rights you are selling: First North American Electronic Rights Only.

Second Serial Rights
These are reprint rights and apply to print and electronic markets. Never sell reprint rights, keep them at all costs. Even you will earn less money for each reprint, you can sell your work over and over again.

Subsidiary Rights
Other rights that authors and freelancers hold are subsidiary rights, including, but not limited to movie rights, dramatic, TV and radio rights, audio and other media rights.

Digital Rights
However, don’t give up or sell your electronic rights to a traditional book publisher without receiving a large lump sum or at least 50% royalty from the retail price. Most publishing houses are not really experts in e-publishing and often don’t use the electronic rights to your book. But it would prevent you from e-publishing your own work or selling it to a high-royalty-paying e-publisher.

All Rights
In this case the author gives up all future income from the article or book and only retains the copyright. Giving up all your rights should be only considered if a tremendous sum is paid for.

Copyright Protection in the USA and Canada
Copyright protection in Canada is automatic upon the creation of a given work, regardless of the medium of its creation, and it lasts until fifty years after the creator’s death – in the USA seventy years.

Before You Sign Any Contracts:
Always first contact your national authors’ or writers’ associations for further information and get legal advice from a lawyer who is specialized in copyright. This can save you ten thousands of dollars.

Sources:

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/
http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/ccl/aboutCopyright.html
http://www.stroppyauthor.com/2010/07/how-to-read-publishing-contract-part-15.html
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/how-to-sell-foreign-book-rights/
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/part-2-great-opportunity-for-authors-foreign-right-sales/
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/
http://www.writing-world.com/links/rights.html
http://www.cipo.gc.ca
http://www.writersunion.ca

 

If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com

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Interview with Lara Fawzy, Business Author

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Today’s author interview is with Lara Fawzy, a global marketing specialist and business writer. She authored together with Lucas Dworsky a non-fiction guide book to “Internet B2B marketing in emerging markets” worldwide. It is not only a valuable source for economists and businesses, but also an amazing textbook, describing marketing models, and concludes with detailed case studies showing the ebocube model at work, driving real profits.

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Internet-B2B-marketing-in-emerging-markets

Internet-B2B-marketing-in-emerging-markets

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How would you describe your book to someone who has not yet read it?

It’s the first comprehensive guide to Internet B2B marketing in emerging markets, introducing ebocube model, a framework and methodology business leaders can implement with low-risk and high reward to penetrate the world’s fastest-growing markets, and create significant value where it never existed before.

  • The book begins with an up-to-date introduction to emerging markets, including economic potential, languages, culture, time zones, economies, politics, and Internet/mobile penetration.
  • Next, the book covers best practices for branding, distribution, segmentation, and collaboration in emerging markets. Then, in the heart of the book, the powerful, three-phase Internet-based B2B marketing and sales model “ebocube” is introduced.
  • Readers will learn how to establish metrics and dashboards to stay on track through the entire B2b buying cycle; how to plan and manage campaigns, from selling propositions to media mix; how to utilize email, webcasts, websites, social media, and banner ads in emerging markets; how to mix in offline media and channels; how to budget and manage marketing operations and much more. The book concludes with detailed case studies showing ebocube at work driving real profits.  Emerging Business Online brings together powerful lessons and techniques that are being applied successfully by Cisco and other global leaders.

Is there a message in your book that you want your readers to grasp?

Don’t struggle with trial-and-error approaches to Internet B2B marketing in fast-growth emerging markets. Begin with a blueprint that works: ebocube!  The model is called ‘ebocube’, which stands for emerging business online, with cube referring to the visual framework of the three-phase model.

  1. Phase One: The Dashboard and the Datacube.
    This phase focuses on reporting on marketing, sales, and company or contact data for the businesses being targeted in emerging markets. It measures what’s working (or not working) and which market is generating the highest return on marketing investment (ROMI). The datacube also represents the quality of contact data to leverage an eCRM strategy. These reports mean business decisions are not based on instinct or assumption, but on numbers and business intelligence.
  2. Phase Two: Campaign and Data planning
    Using the ebocube commercial cycle (contact buying cycle/decision-making process and data life cycle), phase two discusses the proposition, messaging, the incentive, localization, budgeting, and integrating the media mix (online and offline) to achieve ebocube commercial cycle goals.
  3. Phase Three: Marketing Operations or mops.
    Phase three covers budgeting, planning, executing, tracking, and measuring campaigns to feed the dashboard with meaningful metrics. It also demonstrates how  to feed your company database, with contact and company data, which can be represented in the datacube. Phase three closes the loop on marketing, data, and sales in global markets.
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    ebocube

    ebocube

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What inspired you to start writing ?
A new-generation technology prompted us to write this book that technology is telepresence, the next generation of videoconferencing technology. Telepresence uses the Internet to transfer conference calls as well as high-definition images and presentations. It can provide life-size images and surround sound and can thus create the illusion that all the attendees are in the same room.

Holographic videoconferencing is an application that appears to beam three-dimensional images of people into a room. This is but one example of existing and emerging technologies that present an effective and responsible alternative to world leaders and business executives who currently fly around the world and ride in limousines to meeting locations. Digital and information technologies are allowing businesses in emerging markets to dramatically upgrade their business processes and operations.

As billions of people now access the Internet, emerging nations and markets are increasing their investments in these technologies to give people greater access (and speed) to information. This book explores how and why the Internet and related technologies are redefining how we all conduct business globally. We identify the most salient new ideas shaping the global information marketplace, and explore how these offer government and private sector managers a new generation of digitally based management and communication tools and how businesses in developed markets can develop, emerging, fast growth markets.

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Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you have learned as a writer from then to now?

***** Start marketing before you publish the book, at least prepare some mailings lists, live events, start a blog, build a platform. If you want a bestseller – learn how to market and sell !!! *****
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Considering a book from the first word you write to the moment you see it on a bookstore shelf, what’s your favorite part of the process? What’s your least favorite?
My favorite part was seeing the book cover design for the first time, and editing the book content. Typing: did not enjoy this part so much, probably the most tiring part, oh and receiving manuscript rejections, however, it was all worth it in the end when we received a contract from the FT Press Pearson 

 

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything about your book?
Probably the title would need to be changed, although I like it, I could play with it forever as a marketer. My publisher has a lot of control over the book, pricing, design etc, there are a few things I would have liked to have changed that were advised to us by the publisher. Perhaps I would consider self-publishing in the future.

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How did you get published? Please share your own personal journey.
We good published by a major publishing house in New York, the FT Press Pearson, ironically Pearson UK rejected our manuscript. The formula included persistence, a very good proposal, targeting the right people at the right time and having a marketable content.
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What general advice do you have for other writers?
Start with a good structure and then write when you can, in the evenings, after work on the weekend, don’t give up if you feel you have viable idea or good business idea or novel. Your vision is totally realistic even if no body else shares it.

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What do you find is the best part of being an author?
Being an author for the FT press gives me a lot of credibility in the business world and has opened doors for me, more importantly, I believe anything is achievable if you commit and persevere.

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What is ONE thing that you have done that brought you more readers?
Writing blogs and sharing on social media, mainly LinkedIn.
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What’s one thing that your readers would be surprised to know about you?
I’ve climbed the highest mountain in Southeast Asia, Mount Kinabalu half the size of Everest, it’s my second biggest achievement after publishing my first book!

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Learn more about Lara Fawzy and see her remarkable posts @LaraFawzy, for everyone interest in marketing, digital business and geo-politics.

https://twitter.com/LaraFawzy

http://www.amazon.com/Emerging-Business-Online-Internet-Marketing/dp/0137064411

 www.Larafawzy.com

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/
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http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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How to Sell Foreign Book Rights

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RockofCashelIreland

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It is not that easy to sell your foreign rights without an agent or a publisher, but it’s not impossible. Women’s fiction author Kay Raymer did the whole agent query routine in 2000, but nobody would look at her novel, Hannah Street. So she sent the manuscript to her attorney, who happened to know someone at Bertelsmann / Germany. Bertelsmann made an offer on the book, and her lawyer helped arrange the contract. As a result, Raymer’s first novel appeared in Germany in 2001, a paperback original called Das Rosenhaus. Read more in Gwen Ellery’s article.

Most agents charge 20% (or sometimes even 25%) on foreign sales (including British and translations).
This 20% rate is justified because normally two agents are involved (the second one being in the foreign country), and they end up splitting the commission.

You should never agree to be paying over 25% commissions for any type of sale.
Note that your foreign sales will likely be subject to a local withholding tax (10% is common), and that all of that tax burden will be borne by you (that is, the agent will take his or her commission off the pre-tax gross).

If you are not represented already, why not try to find agents or even publishers yourself in other countries, especially if you speak more than one language?
I just found a blog post from a successful writer, who did just that: searched the internet, found contact addresses of agents in other countries and contacted them. He wrote:

“How does one sell rights in the international marketplace?
My first foreign rights sales occurred as a result of Book Expo America, where for a small fee my book was displayed in a co-op booth.  Although the book didn’t take Book Expo by storm — as I somehow thought it would — it received interest from and I sold translation rights to publishers in Mexico, Poland and Nigeria.  If publishers in such diverse countries and cultures wanted the book, I was sure publishers in other countries would also want it.”   
Read the whole article here: http://axiomawards.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/selling-foreign-rights-around-the-world/

Morris Rosenthal gives also great, detailed tips in his article about book contracts.
http://www.fonerbooks.com/contract.htm

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 730 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://pinterest.com/111publishing/
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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