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September '03
Author: Bev Vincent
It's been a while since I added to this thread as there hasn't been anything to add. My agent has the manuscript and is presumably creating a demand on the world's supply for red ink as he goes through it.
In the interim, I've been working on other things and I haven't touched the book since I turned it in. Haven't opened the computer file and my copy of the manuscript is in the Copy Club box from a month ago. This past weekend I finally got around to reading the ARC of Wolves of the Calla and made note of the few changes that were made in this final version over what I'd read previously so when my attention returns to The Road to the Dark Tower I'll be able to update it with those modifications.
However, the main reason I am posting here today is that I just heard from my agent and he has sold the book to The Netherlands, which makes two European countries where it will be published (the other one is Italy) so far.
Author: CRinVA
Bev,
Sounds like The Road to the Dark Tower is on The Road to Success!
I, too, will want to send you a copy for signature along with my Shivers II!
Author: Bev Vincent
We're hoping to sell it to more countries once the galleys of the English edition are available. Other countries have expressed interest but want to see more than the proposal.
My only regret is that the business is all done in Euros these days. I was hoping for a seven-figure advance from Italy (in Lira)!
In Italian: la strada alla torretta scura according to BabelFish.
In Dutch: de weg aan de donkere toren according to World Lingo
Author: DTUK
I love anything to do with the DT series, so at least you have some guaranteed copies Bev, when this accompaniment reaches the shelves...heck, when historians really see how popular the King Phenomena was they might just turn their eye to you too and wonder about the Bev Vincent phenomena - the scholaistic student of King
Author: Brautigan
This “selling to other [I]Countries[/I” is interesting and being completely ignorant to the publishing world, a little strange. Questions:
So your agent is responsible for drumming up “other country” interest not your American publishers?
American publishers don't publish directly in other countries or have their own international divisions?
Is their literally negotiations with the Italian Government - Department of Publishing or are there many publishers that bid for your book rights in their country?
Sorry - it's interesting and I'm stupid! (@)
Author: DTUK
Actually Brautigan it's something I understand very little about...would be good hearing how the whole other countries thing works. How countries and translations are selected etc.
Very interesting and far from stupid
It's been a while since I added to this thread as there hasn't been anything to add. My agent has the manuscript and is presumably creating a demand on the world's supply for red ink as he goes through it.
In the interim, I've been working on other things and I haven't touched the book since I turned it in. Haven't opened the computer file and my copy of the manuscript is in the Copy Club box from a month ago. This past weekend I finally got around to reading the ARC of Wolves of the Calla and made note of the few changes that were made in this final version over what I'd read previously so when my attention returns to The Road to the Dark Tower I'll be able to update it with those modifications.
However, the main reason I am posting here today is that I just heard from my agent and he has sold the book to The Netherlands, which makes two European countries where it will be published (the other one is Italy) so far.
Author: CRinVA
Bev,
Sounds like The Road to the Dark Tower is on The Road to Success!
I, too, will want to send you a copy for signature along with my Shivers II!
Author: Bev Vincent
We're hoping to sell it to more countries once the galleys of the English edition are available. Other countries have expressed interest but want to see more than the proposal.
My only regret is that the business is all done in Euros these days. I was hoping for a seven-figure advance from Italy (in Lira)!
In Italian: la strada alla torretta scura according to BabelFish.
In Dutch: de weg aan de donkere toren according to World Lingo
Author: DTUK
I love anything to do with the DT series, so at least you have some guaranteed copies Bev, when this accompaniment reaches the shelves...heck, when historians really see how popular the King Phenomena was they might just turn their eye to you too and wonder about the Bev Vincent phenomena - the scholaistic student of King
Author: Brautigan
This “selling to other [I]Countries[/I” is interesting and being completely ignorant to the publishing world, a little strange. Questions:
So your agent is responsible for drumming up “other country” interest not your American publishers?
American publishers don't publish directly in other countries or have their own international divisions?
Is their literally negotiations with the Italian Government - Department of Publishing or are there many publishers that bid for your book rights in their country?
Sorry - it's interesting and I'm stupid! (@)
Author: DTUK
Actually Brautigan it's something I understand very little about...would be good hearing how the whole other countries thing works. How countries and translations are selected etc.
Very interesting and far from stupid
Comments
When we negotiated the contract with NAL/Penguin, we offered them certain rights and retained certain rights. It's pretty complicated, even to me. If it had been a novel, for example, we would have had to address movie rights -- do we sell them to the publisher or keep them for ourselves (agent and author) to try to sell independently. If the publisher acquires these rights then they get to sell them and the contract specifies what percentage of that money comes to us. Other rights include audio, Book Club edition, electronic, things like that, which are all considered different forms.
For example, when King sold Carrie to Doubleday, they bought the hardcover rights and the paperback rights. They then sold the paperback rights to the paperback publisher for $400,000, of which they kept half and the other half went to King and his agent.
For The Road to the Dark Tower, we sold Penguin/NAL the right to publish the book in the English language in a series of countries around the world. The list filled a legal-sized sheet of paper, but they are only countries where English is the official or major language: England, Australia, Canada, some African countries and Caribbean nations, etc. Penguin has publishing organizations in place that operate in those countries. Penguin Canada, for example. But they won't publish it in English in Germany. English copies from England might show up in an international bookstore in Germany, but that still leaves the German publishing rights available. We asked to retain the translation rights and they agreed.
If you don't have an agent with foreign contacts, it may be better to let the publisher try to sell the translation rights, but as it turned out my agent has a lot of contacts with foreign agents and publishers so it made sense for us to keep them and exploit them ourselves. The biggest difference is this: any advance we get from, say, Italy or the Netherlands comes straight to us. If Penguin/NAL sold the rights, they would apply my share of the money against my advance (after taking a cut for themselves). It helps to pay out the advance sooner, but if (heaven forbid), I never pay out the advance then I wouldn't see any of that foreign money.
So, say my advance was $100 from Penguin. Until I sell enough books to cover that $100 in royalties, I don't get any more income from the books. If we had given them the translation rights and Italy buys the rights for $10 (10,000 Lira! -- naturally the amount is smaller than the English rights as they'll probably sell far fewer books than in U.S, Canada, England, etc.), then Penguin gets $5 and I get $5, less my agent's percentage. But since Penguin advanced me $100, that $4.50 gets applied against the advance and I now have to earn $95.50 to “pay back” my advance. (Note: If we don't sell enough books to cover the advance, I don't have to pay anything back, in case you were wondering. The publisher takes a computed gamble. However, if I don't earn out, they won't be so eager to spend much for my next book.)
However, if we keep the translation rights, we get the $100 advance and the $10 advance, so we're ahead of the game in the early going, at least.
So, no, we don't deal with the Italian Government, we deal with Sperling & Kupfer, an Italian publisher who will take the book, translate it and publish it in Italy, and with the Dutch publisher, who will do similiarly, except they'll use many more a's in the translation.
We'll try to sell the book to as many non-English-speaking nations as we can -- and there are a lot of them out there. You know on the back of books when it says so-and-so's books have been translated into X many languages. Well, each one of those corresponds to a different foreign rights transaction.
Author: Brautigan
Very cool...thanks for the lesson! It's gonna do great worldwide!!
btw...congrats on the 2 Euro countries so far!!
Author: Original Torch
Man, that is some cool stuff ! And congratulations on your $1000 advance !
I am really excited to read the book, and once it is finally pubished (we all know that means DT7 will be out also) then we can open it up and ask you some serios questions... and maybe those of us who are interested can get in line for TRTTDT : Complete and Uncut
Author: Bev Vincent
The publisher, by the way, is Luitingh Sijthoff.
Author: Opie-Mon
Thanks for explaining all that Bev.
I always wondered why it was so hard to find english-language books in Germany, now it looks a little bit clearer. I mean, you can get them, but as imports from mostly the UK, so they are almost twice as expensive. And the choice is very limited too, though thankfully SK will always be featured.
Just hoping that Der Weg zum dunklen Turm finds it's way to Germany fast. Otherwise I'm the poor schmuck who will be mailing them out to family and friends from over here, LOL.
Author: Bev Vincent
I expect we'll sell it in Germany -- King's really big there. Once we get galleys then a lot more of the foreign markets will probably come on board.
Author: Bev Vincent
I'm back from my vacation and had the contracts from the Dutch publisher awaiting my signature. I also expect to get my editor's notes on the manuscript fairly soon, too.