Calls have been made for the industry to "decolonise" the trade by promoting publishers in African and Caribbean countries acquiring territorial and language rights and pushing back against major Anglophone presses hoovering up world rights.
The estate of Watership Down author Richard Adams has won back all of the rights to the late author's classic novel about anthropomorphised rabbits, in a high court ruling against the director of the famed animated adaptation. Read more
‘Rights departments of publishing houses invariably seem to be the poor relation of the sales team,' says Richard Charkin. Think of the coronavirus pandemic as a prompt to have another look at that.
Book publishing has changed dramatically over the last twenty years, and authors of all stripes have new opportunities to manage. Whether you are a long-time author with published work and contracts, or you are a self-published or "hybrid" author with some titles self-published and some licensed to publisher-partners, you need to do some serious thinking and track all of those licenses. Read more
Is Netflix a friend or foe to the book business? That question was addressed by the Global 50 CEO Talk 2019, which featured a conversation with Kelly Luegenbiehl, VP International Originals of Netflix, hosted by publishing consultant Ruediger Wischenbart and with the editors of global trade journals.
‘The share of income from rights has steadily increased from 72 percent in 2013 to 80 percent in 2016,' says the UK's Publishers Association, in a report released this summer.
International rights sales are one of the loftiest holy grails of self-publishing today. As any seasoned indie author will tell you, you can make your book available in myriad markets through Amazon or Kobo. But selling translation rights is not as easy. Read more
The Scandinavians love true crime. The Dutch won't touch historical fiction. The Turks love weepies.
These are trends noticed by the UK's Little, Brown Book Group joint rights director Kate Hibbert, who was named Rights Professional of the Year-an honor sponsored by Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two.-at The Bookseller's British Book Awards, the "Nibbies," last month in London. Read more
It is always a challenge to get accurate figures to demonstrate the importance of rights income to the publishing industry - and therefore to the UK's creative industries as a whole. Read more
‘The real increase in sales recently has been the spread of business to Asian countries,' says Lownie Agency author Roger Crowley. And China holds the key, says Andrew Lownie.
In the first article on magic in fantasy writing we looked at power scaling, plot armour and plausibility. Here we will look at the different types of magic and, more importantly, the cost of magic. Like many other elements in a constructed world, magic is, effectively, a technology; and technology always has a cost. Read more
'I'm very reassuringly honest. It's a job as well as a calling. It's my living - I'm the chief breadwinner in my house. My husband is retired, he supported me through the two decades while I wasn't making enough to live on, and was doing all kinds of things to do with writing to survive - judging competitions, running workshops, appraising manuscripts.
‘My settings of Europe and English visitors weren't really doing it for them, so we decided Scotland would be good. I thought an island would be great, because it's a small community, and it's an opportunity for my main character to get away from it all. The team at HarperCollins have been so supportive and enthusiastic... Read more
For the past five years or so, I've read books on my phone. The practice started innocently enough. I write book reviews from time to time, and so publishers sometimes send me upcoming titles that fall roughly within my interests. Read more
The Guardian calls Irish-Indian poet Nikita Gill "Britain's most-followed poet on social media"-she has 780,000 Instagram followers and 180,000 TikTok followers, and her Instapoetry has been reshared by the likes of Khloe Kardashian, Alanis Morissette, and Sam Smith-and she has published seven volumes of poetry and two novels in the U.K. But she is far less known on this side of the pond. Read more
Nikkolas Smith knows a thing or two about book bans. The illustrator has created five picture books over the last three years-four of which have been yanked off library shelves. There's I am Ruby Bridges, about the civil rights icon; That Flag about the confederate flag; Born on the Water, which explores slavery; and The Artivist which features a child supporting trans kids.
Simon & Schuster has acquired the largest Dutch publishing group Veen Bosch & Keuning, including all of its publishers in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as sister companies Thinium and Bookchoice.
The Publishers Association (PA) has criticised the government's response to a House of Lords report on AI, saying that it has failed to make "any tangible commitments to protect the creative industries against mass copyright infringement".
'I'm very reassuringly honest'
‘My settings of Europe and English visitors weren't really doing it for them, so we decided Scotland would be good. I thought an island would be great, because it's a small community, and it's an opportunity for my main character to get away from it all. The team at HarperCollins have been so supportive and enthusiastic... Read more