Hi all,

Just had an email through from my former agent asking if I'd be interested in assigning the US rights - both electronic and print - to my UK publisher.

The book was a non=fiction entertainment title that sold in hardback for two years and went to paperback this year.

What I'm concerned about is that they have offered nothing for this. Just an amendment to the contract.

What do you think?

When I asked my former agent exactly what was on the table he emailed the editor and cc'd me in on it asking for an example 'Trafalgar Square' contract.

I think I bit my tongue off at that point!

<Added>

Richard Curtis's chapter on ancillary rights is here: http://bit.ly/ssdYcX

From his excellent 'Be Your Own Literary Agent'.

What I'm concerned about is that they have offered nothing for this. Just an amendment to the contract.

I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that there are two issues here:

Is the UK publisher expecting to publish through a US arm, or are they expecting to sell the rights on to a different US publisher? Both are perfectly common ways of proceeding.

If they want to publish through their own US face, I'd would have thought that you'd expect an advance on royalties, and a royalty setup the same as the contract for selling the UK edition.

If they don't - if they're only asking for the rights in order to sell them on - then it's perhaps different. More like translation rights, in other words. They've got no guarantee that they will sell them. If they do, then the deal will (presumably) include an advance on royalties in the normal way. It would depend on the contract, but it would be normal for the UK publisher to take, say 20% of that and all net receipts, and pass 80% on to you.

You could ask the Society of Authors - they're good on contracts.

Also, the situation with your former agent is just a tad tricky, perhaps. If it's an adendum to this contract, then presumably he gets commission, as he's entitled to for having negotiated the contract in the first place. If it's a new contract, then it's a very, very nice question whether it's a) legal and b) ethical, to go it alone...

I suppose the other question is whether you're likely to sell the US rights by any other route. But even if not, there might still be room for negotiation.

I think actually Shooter's publisher is possibly about a third option - because of the reference to Trafalgar Square.

I think what they may be talking about is the right to distribute copies of the UK edition in the US.

The reason I suspect this is because of the ref to Trafalgar Square, who are a US based distributor of mainly UK publishers. It's an option for books which have a significant enough market in the US to make some distribution worth while, but don't seem likely to attract a US publisher in their own right.

I am no expert on the advance side of things so please don't treat this as gospel, but I would say that unless you've earned out your advance on the UK side of things (or look likely to do so) you are unlikely to get a further advance in this scenario. I think it's more likely they would be treated in the same way as any other overseas sales of the UK edition, ie set against your existing advance. There is still an advantage for you of course, because it brings you closer to earning out and thus to seeing some extra cash in royalties one day.

Whatever the case, it seems to me that you need to go back to your agent/publisher to clarify exactly what's on offer here. If it is the case that they are seeking distribution rights in the US, I'm sure you can take your own view on what affect that might have on a potential US sale, vs the likelihood of that sale actually transpiring.

Good luck!

Hey, thanks so much for these responses Emma and Flora.

Both of you are correct in your take on how things should be handled - been up half the night working on it - but I could have gone to sleep early and just read your posts.

I had an 'Aha!' at Flora's third way. The Ed had written a ref to 'TSP' in his email as well, so here they are: http://www.ipgbook.com/

It's an interesting idea, UK publisher distributes UK book in states as a foreign right.

I've earned out my advance, so it'll be interesting to see what they come back with.

I would argue that my former agent should improve the deal in our favour as a trade for assigning those rights but as he didn't even get the title right in the first contract it's highly unlikely.

I'm going to do a bit of research on reserves against returns though, as per Curtis's book, and see if there isn't a way to get US royalties paid straight through on that element.

Also be interesting to see if there's an e-book element to the contract. I'm holding out for 50/50 splits as per NUJ guidelines rather than the Big Publisher driven 25/75.

***

Just called the Society of Authors - who are all very sore from their Christmas party yesterday (which explains why I couldn't get hold of anyone). Their take on it was that it was often handled as another foreign right at 10% of net receipts. They made another point though: push for short lifespan of license 3-5 years max.

It such a shame this has to go through my old agent, I could have had the chats with the publisher already and nailed this down rather than having to play with the piggy in the middle.

Thanks so much for your replies. Writewords subscription earned back already!

Oh good - glad our answers were helpful. Good luck with negotiations!