All the best writers are eager to learn

I have this bias. I believe that the best writers are people who love to learn, who are open to experimentation, who fight to understand and improve. A writer who claims to know it all, who is certain and inflexible, also is pompous and boring on the page.

Although people naturally separate into camps that become echo chambers, the web still enables the alternatives: bridges and connections, exposure to otherness, new ways to learn.

A few good online learning locations for writers:

Charles E. May’s blog – Reading the Short Story

Goodreads’ group – Middle East/North African Lit

Joel Friedlander’s blog – The Book Designer

Lucy V. Hay’s writing craft tips – Bang2write

 

Care to share where you go online to learn more about the art, craft, and business of creative writing?

Literary agencies that handle foreign rights in multiple languages

PLEASE NOTE: This post concerns literary agencies whose clients, in most cases, primarily are trade book publishers or other literary agents. Keep that important distinction in mind. If you are an author, you’ll need to determine (by examining the agency’s website) whether the agency works directly with any individual authors.

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Typically, when a trade book publisher or a literary agency doesn’t have an in-house foreign rights representative, the business will enter into contractual agreements with literary agents for each foreign language or territory. Take a look at a midsize book publisher’s “foreign rights” webpage to better understand what I’m describing. It takes considerable effort to establish relationships with individual subcontractors abroad, but it’s desirable to have agents offering foreign rights to publishers with whom they’re acquainted or at least familiar, and whose language they speak.

To simplify matters, a few literary agencies specialize by offering rights in multiple foreign languages. These one-stop foreign rights agencies are set up to make it easier for publishers and literary agencies to outsource foreign rights licensing.

I’ve compiled a list of some of the literary agents who I believe will offer rights in multiple languages, typically through their established system of agreements with subagents around the world. In other words, the agencies listed here serve as the primary points of contact for the publishers and agents who enlist their services to exploit foreign language rights in the titles under their control.

Let me know if you’re aware of any agencies I’ve overlooked, and I’ll add them to the list. I have not included in this list any searchable databases of foreign rights offerings, which operate as online rights catalogues.

None of these agencies, as far as I’m aware, licenses foreign rights in every language. It would remain necessary to engage two or more agencies to obtain what might be considered ample coverage of foreign territories. Furthermore, some of these agencies handle titles originally published in one particular language, so it’s crucial to read the fine print on their websites before contacting any of them.

Multi-language foreign rights agencies

Big Apple Agency
New Taipei City, Republic of China
Shanghai & Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Susan Schulman: A Literary Agency
New York, NY, USA

Baror International, Inc. – Danny Baror & Heather Baror-Shapiro
Armonk, NY, USA

Goodwill Rights Management – Carl Dobrowolski
Brooklyn, NY, USA

Biagi Rights Management – Linda Biagi
Pleasantville, NY, USA

Chandler Crawford Agency
Monterey, MA, USA
chandler@crawford-agency.com

RussoRights, LLC
Fairfax, VA, USA

Taryn Fagerness Agency
San Diego, CA, USA

2Seas Agency
Ojai, CA, USA

Book Hub, Inc.,
 Subsidiary Rights Agency – Dan Haldeman
Santa Cruz, CA, USA

The Fielding Agency
Beverly Hills, CA, USA

Sylvia Hayse Literary Agency, LLC
Eugene, OR, USA

Letter Soup Rights Agency – Allison Olson
Little Canada, MN, USA

International Transactions, Inc. – Peter & Sandra Riva
Gila, NM, USA

Riggins International Rights Services, Inc.
Clarksville, TN, USA

Andrew Nurnberg Associates
London, UK

KNK Agency – Katrin Kiermeier
London, UK

The Marsh Agency
Mayfair, London, UK

Intercontinental Literary Agency Ltd
London, UK

Louisa Pritchard
London, UK

Rights People
London, UK

Jill Hughes Foreign Rights
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK

Geddes International Limited – Mina Okamoto
UK

Storytellers’ Agency – Elisabet Brännström
London, UK

European Literary Agency – Sandra Baumgartner-Naylor
Bristol, South West England, UK

Cristina Mora Literary & Film Agency
Barcelona, Spain

Eulama – Pina von Prellwitz
Rome, Italy
Munich, Germany

Books & Rights
Zürich, Switzerland

Argosy Agency
Porto, Portugal

DS Rights and Co-Editions Ltd. – Livia Stoia
Bucharest, Romania

I’m delighted to be working with the Big Apple Agency and Cristina Mora. If the other agencies list their clients on their websites, then recommendations can be sought from those clients.

Anyone, but particularly publishers and agents who wish to learn more about the business of licensing foreign rights, can refer to several detailed books on the subject. Seagull Books, a literary press, publishes Rights Buying, Protecting, Selling by Petra Christine Hardt, director of the rights department at Suhrkamp in Berlin. Routledge publishes a guidebook, now in its sixth edition, titled Selling Rights by Lynette Owen, the copyright director at Pearson Education.

These days, publishers should not overlook the feasibility of producing and distributing their own titles in multiple languages. It’s becoming easier and potentially more profitable than subrights licensing deals.

Part 3 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

What would you have told the Sisters in Crime of Upstate SC when they asked, “What changes do you see coming in traditional publishing business models and contracts?”

This is the third and final part of the answer I gave when I spoke to the writers’ group earlier this month in Greenville, South Carolina. I tried to keep this list of trends brief and relevant to authors of crime fiction.

Anyone who monitors the trade book publishing news will think of many more innovations, but I couldn’t ramble on when it became time for the event venue to close for the evening. Please feel free to add or comment on the changes that matter most to you.

Trend:

Increasingly, larger publishers expect authors to license publication rights worldwide in a specific language, such as English, or in multiple languages. In the past, dividing those rights and licensing them in each geographic territory into which a publisher’s business extended was common practice, and many smaller publishers continue that practice. The rationale for publishers expanding their territories is that English-language trade book markets outside the United States and the British Commonwealth, plus foreign-language markets, especially in the BRIC countries, are seen as better opportunities for growth as economic power shifts around the world.

Trend:

Now, a single publisher is able to produce and has the means to distribute a book with several editions in a variety of languages, rather than waiting for a foreign publisher to acquire a foreign translation rights license after the book has become successful in the original language. Smaller publishers, naturally, have been more agile and innovative, sometimes forming co-publishing relationships for this purpose. They’ll soon prove the economies, and then larger publishers will follow their example in-house. Listed here are a few of these early endeavors, so you can see what I’m describing:

40k

Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing

Frisch & Co. Electronic Books

Open Road Integrated Media

Stockholm Text

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Go to Part 1 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

Go to Part 2 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

Part 2 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

“What changes do you see coming in traditional publishing business models and contracts?”

Here’s Part 2 of the answer I gave to the Sisters in Crime of Upstate SC writers’ group earlier this month.

Trend:

There are increasing numbers of ebook-first imprints, designed to reduce publishers’ up-front investment in new, unproven novelists. Get used to this concept, because minimizing risk is a prudent business strategy.

Trend:

Quite a few new imprints dedicated to crime fiction, including crime novels in translation, have been launched over the past few years, as a result of the success of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy.

Have you noticed that dark, horrifying, and brutal seem to be selling well these days? Vendettas appeal to readers, who might be growing accustomed to unconventional protagonists who are more renegade than heroic.

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Go to Part 1 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

Go to Part 3 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

Part 1 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

Earlier this month, I took part in a Q&A with the Sisters in Crime of Upstate South Carolina writers’ group at their monthly meeting in Greenville. They’re a fun bunch of devoted and serious crime-fiction writers, male and female. If you’ve been looking for a network of writers in this region, I enthusiastically recommend them.

One of the Sisters in Crime asked, “What changes do you see coming in traditional publishing business models and contracts?” Quite a few transformations are occurring, so I’ll make the answer I gave to that question into a three-part blogpost. Most of these changes already are taking place, but they might not be noticeable to everyone just yet.

Trend:

Publishers’ fortunes are rising and falling on the basis of one megabestselling series, such as The Hunger Games trilogy, the Fifty Shades trilogy, the Millennium series trilogy, Twilight, and Harry Potter. It’s easy to see all the consumer-facing hoopla, but these series have had huge impacts on their publishers’ bottom lines in certain years.

Trend:

Businesses like clothing stores, restaurant chains, ad agencies, and health spas that have never before been involved in publishing books are starting their own publishing initiatives. It makes sense to capture all of the profit potential in a particular niche of special interest. This kind of specialization is often referred to as a vertical—in essence, a one-stop shop. Get your canoe + purchase a code to stream the movie Deliverance + sign up for whitewater sports classes + buy the paperback edition of Into the Wild all in the same store, right? Special markets, and suitable formats for books sold through them, are becoming more interesting and important.

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Go to Part 2 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

Go to Part 3 of 3: Trends in traditional book publishing

European Literature Night 2013: Miha Mazzini among authors to appear at the British Library

On Wednesday, May 15, 2013, BBC arts journalist Rosie Goldsmith will host European Literature Night at the British Library Conference Centre, located at 96 Euston Road in London.

Two esteemed publishers who also happen to be gifted writers, Meike Ziervogel of Peirene Press and Charles Boyle of CB editions, will be present with two of their authors, Birgit Vanderbeke and Miha Mazzini. Accompanied by half a dozen additional award-winning authors from across Europe, the audience will embark on a literary journey spanning the region, from Spain to the Netherlands to Turkey, with entertaining stops along the way.

Rosie Goldsmith invites the public to “enjoy an evening of readings where the personal and the political sit side by side, shift places and remind us all of the joy and pain of being alive.”

Tickets for European Literature Night 2013 can be reserved through the online box office.

Sponsors include European Union National Institutes for Culture – London, the European Commission Representation in the UK, and the Czech Centre London. European Literature Night is produced by Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions with the participation of Foyles bookstore.

Download program brochure (PDF)

Video of the entire program

Mashup your own anthologies

Are we using the word mashup anymore? It slid off my screen some time ago.

Back when mashups were still page one—which is to say about five years ago, when I was trying to foresee the digital transformation of trade book, textbook, and scholarly publishing—the idea of an anthology mashup made sense. What was needed at that time was an online interface designed to allow any user to pull together licensed content from various sources for a one-of-a-kind anthology compiled and printed on demand. The concept was logical from the user’s standpoint. Now that ebooks are sufficiently popular, the execution should be even simpler.

Because I just read the news of yet another such publishing endeavor outside the textbook sector, it’s due time for a list here on the blog.

What should I call these anthology mashup publishers?

• AnthologyBuilder
  First to grab the perfect trade name and catch my eye was this publisher in Rantrum, Germany, offering custom anthologies in print for $14.95 plus shipping charges.
• Bindworx
  Set to launch in May 2013, this UK company, a collaboration of Eden Interactive of Chester and Trust Media Distribution of Carlisle, is an ebook-conversion service for publishers offering “whole or fragmented content” to consumers in ebook format.
• Slicebooks
  This publisher in Denver, CO, allows publishers “to slice and remix ebooks, journals, and magazine content.”
• BiblioBoard Library & Nuvique
  A platform and an application developed by the Charleston, SC, publisher that goes by the name BiblioLife, this multimedia software launches in 2013 with an eclectic assortment of public domain works.
• CAT Publishing
  In Palo Cedro, CA, this company publishes short print runs of co-authored textbooks. Its current catalogue is very limited.
• Bedford/St. Martin’s
  This texbook publisher, which is part of Macmillan, has a permissions editor on call to facilitate the creation of customized anthologies for classroom use. A minimum quantity of books is required for an order, and they’re delivered in four to eight weeks.

This is not a comprehensive list. Let it be said that many publishing companies could, and most big textbook publishers already do, offer user interfaces to make anthology mashups possible, with someone behind the scenes handling rights licensing and customer service. The products are likely to be called custom or customized anthologies or solutions. If you’ve used one, please feel free to leave a link to the company in the comments section.

Obviously, there are logical objections to sales of one-off anthologies and collections. Anthologies often include works from authors who are not well known, and they’re a beautiful, time-honored way to introduce these emerging or overlooked talents to more readers. Furthermore, the editors of anthologies receive extra attention for their efforts, even if none of their own writing is included in the books they chaperone through the publication process. If anyone can become an anthology creator, well…

Nevertheless, the web, like the world, is user oriented. In a sophisticated world of users and makers, the former will tend to outnumber the latter. Makers, perhaps because they’re often more vocal and more visible, and because they’re running the show, tend to forget that the much more numerous users are equally indispensable. The user experience will establish the reputation of the maker, good or bad.

Cheers to the makers who recognize the value of usability!

Get permission. Don’t violate copyright.

Thanks to Jason Boog at GalleyCat for mentioning a brilliant new service called Imgembed, which is designed to streamline the process by which bloggers legally obtain images to illustrate their posts.

Copyright law is complex, but so are lots of laws. Bewilderment and impatience aren’t excuses for ignoring other people’s legal rights.

Not long ago, at a writers’ workshop I attended, the friendly and easygoing instructor advised the class members that there was no real need to worry about incorporating copyright-protected material without permission, because the chance of pirated matter being discovered by a rights holder was so minuscule that it ought to be a matter of pride if it happened. It would mean the project under discussion had succeeded in attracting notice beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, in other words.

It was difficult to keep my mouth shut, and some of you will be surprised that I did. After all, rights trading is my business. But it’s not cool to contradict the teacher, so I swallowed my objections. I’m not proud, just pragmatic.

Within a few months, the workshop instructor learned from a much better authority. A portion of his own work was taken and rebranded without his authorization, and he realized that it wouldn’t be worth the expense to litigate for copyright infringement. From the standpoint of a victim, he was outraged.

Funny how wrong people can be when they believe their own convenience supersedes other people’s rights.

It was a good reminder for me as well. I don’t need to teach people anything. They’re going to learn.

Bloggers using WordPress.com click on a button labeled “Publish” to make each of their posts publicly visible. But it doesn’t take a warning on a button to prove that bloggers are de facto publishers, with all of the legal responsibilities that publishing entails. All it takes is a little common sense.

Publishers must have the rights in, or the permission to publish, what they’re publishing. Every time. Not merely when it’s convenient. I’m happy to see companies like Imgembed addressing the problem of inconvenience, because at $20 or $25 per post, blogging for pay is a losing proposition when illustrated posts are expected.

Imgembed is new, so its selection of images doesn’t yet appear to be enormous. Scroll down to The Creative Finder on the Imgembed website to browse or search for images to use.

I’m not wild about the minimum image size requirement, but I’m not sure every image has a minimum. The photograph I embedded in this post is as small as I was permitted to render it. Also, my use of the owl image through Imgembed is free of charge for up to 10,000 impressions, which means that about eight years from now, I’ll need to remember to remove it from my blog if I don’t want to buy a license. I wasn’t given any indication what a rights license might cost me at that point, if I decide I want to continue to use the photo. Surely the licensing terms will be made clearer as the Imgembed site evolves. As far as I can tell, the terms offered are fairly standard for this type of use. I am happy that the photographer was automatically credited and linked, saving me a series of time-consuming steps when posting. All in all, it’s a great concept. I hope it catches on.