The Importance of Foreign Rights to the Bottom Line of an Indpendent Publisher - Part 1

by Bob Erdmann

The most successful publishers and self-published authors I’ve worked with in my four+ decades in book publishing have been those who understood that (1) publishing is a business, not a hobby; (2) have been tireless promoters of their books; and (3) fully realized that a book should be considered as a financial “asset” and as such it should gain the largest return on investment as possible. Number 3 means fully maximizing multiple revenue streams from that asset and a very meaningful revenue stream, and one that is minimally cost intensive, is foreign rights. That’s right, minimally cost intensive! The foreign publisher bears all the costs involved and pays you for the right to translate and publish your book in their country. That’s a pretty good deal, a “no-brainer”, right?

OK, you’re probably wondering “what’s this all about, how does it work?” It’s really pretty simple. Foreign publishers world wide are aggressively seeking books to publish. More often than not, work by quality authors is simply not readily available in their countries so they seek acquisition of licensing rights to books already published in other countries, especially America. You, the American publisher (or self-published author) license the right to a foreign publisher to reprint, market and distribute your book in either English in English speaking countries, or translated into a foreign language in non-English speaking countries. The entire cost to do this is borne by the foreign publisher, who pays you an advance and royalty for this licensing right. This is found money for you and a very simple way to create a significant revenue stream from your financial asset—your book—thus helping to maximize the return on your investment.

Book publishing is now on a very fast track which makes the smaller, independent publisher vulnerable to the whims and fancies of a very fickle industry. Barnes & Noble and Borders will be the first to tell you that if your book doesn’t sell very, very quickly they won’t be carrying it much longer than a cup of coffee. The same is true with Ingram and Baker & Taylor, or your distributor if you use one. As a wise investor, you need to diversify your financial assets. Build a foreign rights revenue stream to protect your number one asset!

(To be continued Thursday - addressing what the markets are)

Publishing consultant Bob Erdmann is a four-decade veteran of book publishing and foreign rights guru. He served two terms as president of Publishers Marketing Association (PMA - now Independent Book Publishers Association - IBPA) where he created many of its current popular programs. He has successfully negotiated more than 3,500 foreign rights sales for participants in his annual Frankfurt/Foreign Rights Program. For information go to (http://www.bob-erdmann.com/foreign-rights.html), email bob@bob-erdmann.com, or call (209) 586-1566.

Bob will be our Expert interviewed this month at www.PublishingProsperity.com on Thursday, February 5.

===============

Whether it's books, booklets, audio programs or any other intellectual property, foreign rights can be a big boost to your bottom line. What products do you have that are candidates for foreign rights purchases?

Until next time,

Paulette - who has done several foreign rights deals

www.CollectionOfExperts.com
www.PublishingProsperity.com
www.tipsbooklets.com
Follow me www.twitter.com/pauletteensign