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With pre-Frankfurt submissions just warming up after a “dead” August, the habitual tussle between agents and publishers over global rights is resurfacing with a new intensity. Agents say some publishers are now making full rights an absolute condition for a deal, while their ability to fully exploit those rights can remain in question.
Gordon Wise of Curtis Brown described a “land grab in the assumption of a bigger basket of rights, including audio”, saying: “Some of the large groups will go to the wall on audio when they have no clear strategy and don’t have the best rates.” He added: “We have had threats at the 11th hour. To put a gun to an author’s head and say, ‘If you don’t go with us, it’s no deal’—it’s tough.”
Another agent, who preferred not to be identified, said he “completely disagreed” with one company’s philosophy of acquiring world English rights. “Editors are embarrassed, having to acquire US rights when the book isn’t going to do well in America, and it’s being foisted on them,” he noted. “It drives editors insane.”
Meanwhile Clare Alexander of Aitken Alexander, commenting for The Bookseller, said she had seen “too many global acquisitions fail” without an editor who really championed the book on each side of the Atlantic, and questioned the usefulness of global publication dates for authors other than in genre.
But Tom Weldon, c.e.o. of Penguin Random House UK, said the publisher would “never ever” foist a book on international markets. “We always look for the best international partner and passion for the book,” he said.
“We absolutely do share [books], but this is based on a collegial editorial approach, our international network of editors and publishers. We try to encourage editors around the world to connect with each other—we send people to book fairs, and hold international editorial meetings—but the interests of the author always take precedence over corporate synergy.” He cited the Hogarth Shakespeare series, with PRH partners in New York, Canada, Germany and Spain, as a “brilliant example of the collegiate approach”.
Weldon agreed that global publication dates was not right for all titles, saying it was “horses for courses”. But he confirmed the importance of audio for PRH: “Our offer is always for audio as well, we expect to buy those rights and yes, it is a big problem [if they are not included]. We are investing a lot of money in our audio team, we recently hired Caroline Raphael from the BBC [as editorial director, audio], and we have a media suite at the Strand. Audio is simply another format, you can’t see it as a separate entity. “
Brian Murray, c.e.o. at HarperCollins, also confirmed that HarperCollins in the US had had a policy “for years” of always acquiring audiobook rights, saying: “There are tremendous advantages to co-ordinating audiobook publication [with print publication].”
HC announced its 50-titles-a-year global publishing programme at the London Book Fair earlier this year, but Murray said every book deal was unique and negotiated that way. “For us it’s a very collaborative process—there are some authors we feel we could do a better job with co-ordinating all the different languages, and others not,” he said. “We’ve focused on 50 titles [in YA and commercial fiction], we are not trying to publish every book in multiple languages—if we acquire rights, we want to exercise them.
"We have many real-world examples where this way [global acquisition] is more effective than the shotgun approach, each market doing its own publishing and marketing—that worked for decades, but it has changed with the growth of digital, digital marketing and global retailers.“
Richard Charkin, executive director at Bloomsbury, which has a policy of acquiring world English rights, made the same point, commenting: “Whatever one thinks about the current situation, there’s no question that the direction of travel is towards global publishing and distribution. The co-ordination of marketing, sales and production is ever more important and multiple publication makes what is already complicated even more so.”
Nicola Solomon, chief executive of The Society of Authors, said: "Our view is people shouldn't be taking rights unless they can demonstrate they can exploit them and add value. If they [publishers] can confirm they have a proper international strategy it may be better to sell worldwide, if they can't, I don't think it's at all appropriate to give the rights. They should all be subject to 'use it or lose it' clauses, and if the rights are not being exploited in a particular territory, they should revert… We do see many publishers being more intransigent in relation to foreign rights, but it should always be seen as negotiable and authors have options to go elsewhere."