GENERAL
AAA -
Association of Authors Agents (U.K.)
AAR -
Association of Authors Representatives (U.S.)
BKS - The
Bookseller
A weekly British trade magazine.
BOMC - Book of
The Month Club
Fk't - or just
Frankfurt or just 'the fair' - all refer to the Frankfurt Book Fair
Held annually the first weekend in October, and without doubt the most
important venue for the sale of international rights. If it's hot at
Frankfurt, the buzz lasts at least until publication.
LMP - Literary
Marketplace
An annual guide to who's who in the book business. It's the industry
bible for locating anyone connected with the trade and can be found in
virtually every us public library and many others.
NYT - The New
York Times
America's newspaper of record. See the PW entry for why it matters in
this context.
PN - Publishing
News
A weekly British trade broadsheet.
PW - Publishers
Weekly
This one's what it says it is, a weekly magazine about the book
business. Invaluable and read by everyone in the trade, but skewed more
to the publisher's point of view than that of the author. Reviews in PW
are crucial, however. And its bestseller list is second in importance
only to that of the Sunday NYT.
QPBC - Quality
Paperback Book Club
Q&Q - Quill
and Quire
A monthly Canadian trade publication.
PUBLISHERS
Some houses have
been known since almost forever by their initialsÖ
S&S - Simon
and Schuster
FS&G- Farrar
Straus and Giroux
NAL - New
American Library
NEL - New English
Library
HRW - Holt
Rhinehart & Winston
(While we're on the
subject of publishers, a note about the dear departed. Our reports
often make reference to publishers who are defunct, swallowed up in the
great rush to conglomerate. In some cases, they have become an imprint
with the house that bought them out - Scribners at S&S is an
example - in others there's nothing left but the memory. Our records go
back long enough so that we know where most of the bodies are buried.
And we tell you.)
RIGHTS
Roughly defined,
that which belongs to you as author, i.e. The control of a piece of
written work is vested in the creator. (Under present copyright law you
need do nothing to assert those rights, they are yours automatically.)
There are, however, a number of subsets which you need to understand
before you consider signing any of them away:
Volume rights -
permission to publish the manuscript in book form. Either hardcover,
paperback or both.
Dramatic rights -
permission to adapt the work for performance. Depending on how the
contract is written this refers to film, legitimate stage, tv, or any
combination thereof. The rights to produce audio tapes are usually
dealt with separately.
Electronic
rights -
the whole bag of tricks relating to the internet and what's generally
called new media. Very complex and still evolving.
First serial
rights -
permission given (for a price - usually fairly juicy) to a newspaper or
magazine to publish excerpts from the work prior to its volume
publication.
Second serial
rights -
permission given (usually a lot more cheaply) to a newspaper or
magazine to publish excerpts after volume publication.
Foreign rights -
the right to publish the book in countries other than that of the
primary publisher. Sometimes, but with less accuracy, referred to as
translation rights. An author with a US primary publisher sells the
English or Canadian rights as a foreign deal, not one involving
translation.
World rights -
as used in book publishing this refers to the sale to the primary
publisher of an interest in all the subsidiary rights mentioned above
and possibly a few more. The share-out depends on the contract, but
traditionally it has been along 60/40 lines, with the lion's share
going to the lion - in this case, the publisher. A good agent can, of
course, cut a different deal. The best agents seldom sell world rights
unless they are talking a mega buck advance and are using the sale of
world rights to sweeten an already very sweet pot.
MISCELLANEOUS - OTHER CONTRACT TERMS
Advance -
a fixed sum paid to the writer. Theoretically designed to allow the
writer to live during the period the book is being written, revised,
and ultimately published. Equally theoretically, it is exactly what it
says, an advance against the royalties the book will earn after copies
go on sale. Advances above certain minimum amounts usually involve
staged payouts over a period of a year or more. So much on signing, so
much on completion, so much on finishing the revisions, so much on pub
day, six months after pub day, et cetera.
Except in rare (thank
God) instances the advance is not repayable. If the book bombs, in
monetary terms the publisher takes the hit, not the author. If it does
not bomb it reaches that happy state known as.
Earning out -
enough copies of the book are sold so that the agreed royalties cover
the amount of the advance. In general terms, the author is paid no
further sums until the advance has been earned out. The specifics,
however, are more complicated.
Contracts can be and
are written that permit certain subsidiary earnings to be passed
through to the author before the advance is earned out. Also bear in
mind that the publisher does not require a book to earn out the advance
paid to the author before the book shows a profit on the publisher's
books. Their accountants are more subtle than that.
Escalators -
bonuses paid to the author based on the work meeting certain
performance goals. Almost always that means a given number of weeks on
the New York Times Best seller list, though it can also speak to
rewards for appearances on other lists, or reference some other arcane
standard of hitting a bases loaded homer. Agents, like the publisher's
accountants, are very creative people.
|
