Foreign Rights: Let’s talk about the London Book Fair
Hi readers! I am Liza, the Foreign Rights Executive here at Mushens Entertainment! In anticipation of the London Book Fair in April of this year, I am doing a series of blog posts talking about different elements of foreign rights. Authors tend to have a lot of questions about selling a book internationally, and you can read my crash course on this here.
In the meantime, let’s talk about the London Book Fair! For the first time in two years, publishers from all over the world will descend upon London during the first week of April. For three days, thousands of people will attend the fair and talk about the best commodity in the world: books. And this is what makes the fair so important. While we are an agency based in the UK and our first deals are mainly with British publishers, we want our authors and their books to reach readers all over the world. We constantly pitch our author’s books throughout the year, and update scouts (who always love how much information we share with them) as to what we have, when we have it, and whenever there is good news about foreign sales, listings, good reviews, etc, we love to shout about it! Sometimes there is a misconception that Fairs are the only time that big deals are done for books, but we actually sell foreign rights continuously throughout the year. However, attending the fair allows us to pitch books directly to foreign publishers and broaden our author’s audiences, sometimes expanding the readership of a book overnight from one country to over a dozen.
For example, there is typically a book that dominates the fair and causes a global rights storm, and becomes unofficially known as “The Book of the Fair.” In previous years, this has happened with Jessie Burton’s THE MINIATURIST, Abigail Dean’s GIRL A, Richard Osman’s THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB, and many more. By the time the fair closed, THE MINIATURIST had sold in nearly twenty territories, and then went on to sell in thirty-nine overall. GIRL A has sold in 35 territories, and Richard Osman in 43. Book Fair buzz also helps generate new sales for books already published. For example, the leadup to the fair has already generated new sales for BREATHLESS by Amy McCulloch, THE CLOCKWORK GIRL by Anna Mazzola, and PANDORA by Susan Stokes-Chapman.
For three days straight, Juliet, Silé, Rachel, and myself will eat, read, chat, pitch, and sleep (okay, maybe not sleep) at a little table in the International Rights Centre, or the IRC, where we will take meetings every thirty minutes (I have set everyone packed schedules). We are set to meet people from Paris to Poland, Lisbon to Latvia, and nearly everywhere in between.
As a very handy tool, I have created the Mushens Entertainment Rights Guide (or, the Holy Grail of Books as I fondly think of it). This year, there are twenty-eight authors, spanning across fiction (historical, thrillers, ancient myths, murder mysteries, women’s fiction) and non-fiction (memoir, motherhood, professional-confessional, and pop culture). In the Rights Guide, every book features a synopsis, author photo, title images, biography, quotes and facts, as well as a list of territories already sold. As a team, we learn to pitch every book and author. We play up key selling information which entices bids from different publishers, and adjust our meetings to what each individual is looking for. I’ve personally witnessed a publisher gasp as Juliet revealed a plot twist, and watched Silé transform an editor’s outlook on life while describing a book about motherhood.
However, some of the first people we will meet with, are our amazingly wonderful co-agents. Our co-agents are agents like ourselves, except that they are based and work in different countries and have unique knowledge of their markets. For example, while we love to sell books in say, China, we are not experts in how the Chinese market functions. Therefore, we work with someone there who loves our books as much as we do, and is able to find a publisher who will place those books in the hands Chinese readers. We rely on their help to see deals through, but we are also reliant on scouts to help get deals started. Scouts are different from co-agents and are hired by international publishers to keep an eye out for the best books in the UK and inform them about what they think would be best to buy for their readers. I sometimes think of scouts as Varys’ little birds from Game of Thrones. They know everything that is coming out and quickly spread the word worldwide on the UK’s hottest titles.
In the evenings, there are dinners and events, which provide a chance to catch up with friends, talk about the biggest books, and get a drink and unwind. By the end of the fair, we are normally exhausted and oftentimes lose our voices from pitching books nonstop for three days. However, it is all worth it. Watching the deals come in and seeing how a book can suddenly go from a single publisher to well over twenty is awe inspiring and really does change lives.
I hope you now know a bit more about the London Book Fair! Juliet, Silé, Rachel, and myself are now ready to dive into our meetings. Wish us luck, and make sure to check out the blog as we explain more about the great world of Foreign Rights in the upcoming weeks!