foreign and translation rights

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inksthetraveller

Hi,
I'm an Estonian non-fiction writer. A publisher is interested in publishing my textbook. They are interested in translating it and also selling it to foreign publishers. Can anyone explain to me how it works? Will it be a single payment that the publisher will receive or will they get royalties from that sale? What are the advances or royalties that are paid to the author? I have no agent.
Thanks.
 

cree

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If you don't want to get an agent, you might consider a publishing attorney to negotiate this for you. One of my contracts includes international rights, and the advance is unaffected, but the royalty breakdown is different per country and even different based on first, second, mass-market paperback, translation rights, etc etc...and I'm only dealing with one publisher. Sounds like you are dealing with your publisher and a second? although the first pub should be handling the contract negotiations with the second, not you?
It sounds complex to me, so I can only suggest getting a publishing lawyer.
An agent will also perform the duties of making sure you don't get taken by a publisher, but some writers prefer the no-agent route. That's a preference, but you should get someone on your team to look out for your best interests.
 

inksthetraveller

Thanks for your response. The book is being published in Estonia, it's a small country and we usually don't use agents but deal directly with the publisher. I'm in the process of negotiating the first contract and the publisher wants to put in a clause about selling foreign rights. Before agreeing to it, I need to know how much is fair to get paid for it. I've heard that in case of selling foreign and translation rights the author should get at least 50%. Is there anyone who has had an experience with this kind of contracts and perhaps sold their foreign rights and can give advice? Thanks.
 
K1P1

K1P1

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I don't know if 50% is standard across the industry, but it's standard for my publisher. Another question you should probably ask is, how good is your publisher at selling those rights. If they have a good record at selling the foreign rights, good. If not, then it might be better for you to hold on to the foreign rights and use an agent (perhaps an agent in another country) to sell the foreign rights for you.

cree, do you have any advice on how to find a publishing lawyer? I'm assuming that not just anyone who specialized in "intellectual properties" will do. I'm in a small town and it's not like I can thumb through the yellow pages with any results. Working on the internet, I've found lots of info on finding an agent, but not a lawyer who specializes in publishing.
 
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