Book Contract

[windyrdg]

Not that I have one, just thinking (or dreaming) ahead.

As I see it there are two possibilities in a book contract:

Case A) The publisher gets world rights and either has its foreign divisions distribute copies in the native language, or contracts with other publishers in foreign countries. As I understand it, in the second case any payments the publisher receives are divided between the company and the author and applied against the advance until the book pays out. I'm guessing that in the first case you just get your standard royalty rate as per contract.

Case B) Author retains all rights except US or North American and agent sells the book to foreign publishers. I've been watching the rights sales on PW's Deals page and I'm seeing everything from Nice Deals to auctions, pre-empts and multi-book sales.

It seems to me that the author does much better in the second scenario. Not only do they have the possibility of multiple advances, they also have multiple income streams. On her blog Tess Gerritsen talked about several authors she knows who are mid-listed in the US, but make a nice living from foreign sales.

Obviously some books have more of a universal appeal than others, but I'd be interested in seeing some other opinions on this, esp. from published novelists.

[ORION]

This is something you talk with your agent about. There are some situations that it's better to go world rights - for example if you want a bigger deal up front- I am still waiting to be paid by some countries and it's been over a year. Not every book is marketable outside the US as you point out.
It is a business decision that is dependent on how many US publishers are interested or whether the only deal you get offered hinges on it being world rights.
Some books are sold world English rights. Mine are north american- I got a separate deal for the UK which included New Zealand and Australia. My agent just sold world spanish rights...There is no better or worse. Many times it is hard to collect monies overseas unless you have a really good foreign rights agent (I have William Morris so I feel confident they have enough muscle to protect my interests) in reality this is far more complex than your question implies- for example many countries automatically sub taxes that you don't get back...even those with reciprocal agreements with the US...honestly it has been VERY difficult to untangle it for my taxes this year. I can understand authors who choose to sell world rights to their NA publisher and let them take care of it.

[Will Lavender]

As Patricia says, talk to your agent about this.

We decided to keep foreign rights. My agency sold them, and it turned out to be a good decision. (And yes, there is some real money to be made overseas.)

But I also know of other cases where authors have let their publisher handle world rights, the book has sold in a ton of territories, and that has worked out better. So there are pros and cons to both decision.

[JamieFord]

Another thing to consider is that if you sell world rights, you'll probably be getting a double hit when it comes to commission. The publisher takes a percentage and then your agent. If your agent handles foreign rights you can avoid the double dip.

Hey will--love the cover!

[ORION]

This "double dip" has come up before and it's an erroneous description. For foreign rights that your agent sells there is a 20% commission -- 10% going to your literary agent and 10% going to the foreign rights literary agent. After that (as I said before) many countries take out taxes that cannot be recouped except as business expenses.
If the publisher holds world rights the percentage that is applied to your advance is negotiated. in some cases it's 60% applied to your advance and other cases higher or even lower. You have no real idea what you could have sold your own foreign rights for - the publisher can be aggressive about getting a higher advance. The end result is that world rights sometimes mean more money up front and a faster advance pay off. In no way can this be construed as "double dipping" which IMHO is a meaningless phrase.

[JamieFord]

Ah, I actually wasn't referring to the split between my agent and her foreign rights manager. (Which you are correct, it'd be a 10/10 split equaling 20%). I was thinking of the publisher--who would take 20-25% and then my agent who would still take 15% on top of that.