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Digital publisher RosettaBooks has licensed US e-book rights to Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
In total, Rosetta has bought US rights for 10 titles, and world English rights for eight, including The Anger of Achilles (Graves’ translation of The Iliad), Lawrence and the Arab, and children’s titles Myths of Ancient Greece Retold for the Young and The Siege and Fall of Troy. The deal was concluded with Linda Shaughnessy on behalf of A P Watt at United Agents in the UK.
The Bookseller exclusively revealed in February that RosettaBooks was opening a UK office, headed by Jonathan Ward, as part of a broad outreach for titles from UK agents. Last year it acquired the digital rights to Sir Winston Churchill’s published writing through Curtis Brown. Shaughnessy said that the “comprehensive publishing plan offered by RosettaBooks appealed to the copyright holders”. In addition to the e-books Rosetta will also make 12 of the Churchill titles available as print-on-demand publications, the first to come in spring 2014.
Ward said the titles would sit alongside its curated list of “top tier” books, including Churchill, 35 titles by Arthur C Clarke and 20 works by Kurt Vonnegut.
Arthur Klebanoff, c.e.o. and founder of RosettaBooks, said the business was now starting to make headway in the UK. He said the company’s preference was for World English, but remained open to US rights, and, where appropriate, UK only. Rosetta claims to offer a royalty more than double that on offer from large publishers—a 50% net royalty payment for up to 2,500 copies sold and then 60% after.
Klebanoff said: “UK agents are very focused on this now. They realise these backlists are very valuable and are prepared to think about how they address it; it’s become a very lively issue.”
Robert Graves was born in 1895 in Wimbledon. He published more than 140 works during his long career. Penguin has print and e-book rights in most of his titles in the UK, including I, Claudius and Claudius the God.