Hachette UK Foreign Rights Director Melis Dagoglu shares her insights into how US and translation rights work, why markets differ, and what's on-trend right now...
With ebooks and print on demand, I wonder how long these issues will be important. Why wait for a foreign publisher? Soon we'll be able to buy any book in any language. Just hit the translate button (it's coming, folks).
When an agent sells rights to a publisher, they take a commission, say 15%. When the publisher sells rights on to a foreign publisher, they obviously take a profit. So, isn't the author effectively paying two lots of commission?
Hi, thanks for reading! So contractually it doesn’t work quite like that - the author if they have an agent gives the agent a % of everything they earn. There are different %s for home and export markets etc and for translation and all of that is agreed when you do the initial deal. So in essence yes everything is split three ways between agent publisher and author but all three parties are involved so it works out fairly :) You’re basically more likely to get a better publishing deal if you have an agent arguing your case, too!
Hi, thanks for that reply. I wasn't arguing against agents so much as suggesting that perhaps the publisher is the redundant party. But maybe it depends on the size of the agency and the effectiveness of their rights department?
Yes exactly - some agencies have brilliant in-house rights people who prefer to keep the rights and some don’t so it makes more sense to give them to the publisher - also it affects the overall advance up front so depends on the author’s preference there too if that makes sense!
Loved this. Huge thanks to you and Melis for pulling back the curtain. One question: at acquisition, when you’re deciding between World and UK+Commonwealth, what’s the most important signal that a book will travel in translation?
Really it’s if the rights team love it! So if they’ve read with me and enjoyed and think it taps into trends in their markets then we will try to go for world all languages. Good quality writing always shines through and in fiction trends come and go. So the rights teams know what foreign editors have been asking for and if they feel the script resonates in that way then we will try to go for it. Sometimes depends who the agency is too as some agents never want to sell world rights.
Appreciate this, Phoebe. I’m taking notes from the author seat, and I’ll admit it’s eye-opening to learn how much the rights team’s enthusiasm matters. Thank you!
It was the best kind of first morning read. And then I got to the ‘sweeping love story part’, thought, ‘that’s what I’m writing!’ and got out bed to crack on with my draft. So this morning I’m starting an hour earlier thanks to this post 😊
With ebooks and print on demand, I wonder how long these issues will be important. Why wait for a foreign publisher? Soon we'll be able to buy any book in any language. Just hit the translate button (it's coming, folks).
When an agent sells rights to a publisher, they take a commission, say 15%. When the publisher sells rights on to a foreign publisher, they obviously take a profit. So, isn't the author effectively paying two lots of commission?
Hi, thanks for reading! So contractually it doesn’t work quite like that - the author if they have an agent gives the agent a % of everything they earn. There are different %s for home and export markets etc and for translation and all of that is agreed when you do the initial deal. So in essence yes everything is split three ways between agent publisher and author but all three parties are involved so it works out fairly :) You’re basically more likely to get a better publishing deal if you have an agent arguing your case, too!
Hi, thanks for that reply. I wasn't arguing against agents so much as suggesting that perhaps the publisher is the redundant party. But maybe it depends on the size of the agency and the effectiveness of their rights department?
Yes exactly - some agencies have brilliant in-house rights people who prefer to keep the rights and some don’t so it makes more sense to give them to the publisher - also it affects the overall advance up front so depends on the author’s preference there too if that makes sense!
Loved this. Huge thanks to you and Melis for pulling back the curtain. One question: at acquisition, when you’re deciding between World and UK+Commonwealth, what’s the most important signal that a book will travel in translation?
Really it’s if the rights team love it! So if they’ve read with me and enjoyed and think it taps into trends in their markets then we will try to go for world all languages. Good quality writing always shines through and in fiction trends come and go. So the rights teams know what foreign editors have been asking for and if they feel the script resonates in that way then we will try to go for it. Sometimes depends who the agency is too as some agents never want to sell world rights.
Appreciate this, Phoebe. I’m taking notes from the author seat, and I’ll admit it’s eye-opening to learn how much the rights team’s enthusiasm matters. Thank you!
Fantastic read - thanks for sharing!
Thank you for reading!
It was the best kind of first morning read. And then I got to the ‘sweeping love story part’, thought, ‘that’s what I’m writing!’ and got out bed to crack on with my draft. So this morning I’m starting an hour earlier thanks to this post 😊
Yay!!