Once your book is out there in the world and your publicity campaign has wound down, that doesn’t mean that your book’s journey is nearly over. You can breathe new life into your story by using the different rights you own for your work.
Book rights can seem overwhelming, so let’s break down what kind of rights you may have, and what you can do with them.
Audio Rights
Audiobooks continue to spike in popularity, and many authors are choosing to sell their audio rights. Some publishers do retain these rights, so make sure to check your contract. Here at SparkPress, our standard contract keeps the rights with us, the publisher, but plenty of our authors amend that part of the contract. If you’re a SparkPress author who did not make this revision, but would like your audio rights back, just email Brooke asking for “reversion” of your audio book rights and she will attach that request to your contract. Then you should do the same.
Unless you’re attached to one of the big 5 publishers and they retained your audio rights, (or you manage to sell your audio rights to one of them,) if you want to pursue an audiobook, you’re going to have to take charge of it. You can go total DIY: Buying a microphone, downloading software, recording in your closet, and uploading it yourself. You can also go to the other extreme where you hire an actor to read the book and an audio engineer to mix the recording, rent studio time, and have a professional handle distribution. However, you can find an audiobook recording option in the middle of these two. This choice will depend on several of factors: How much money are you willing to invest? What are your goals for this project? What are your skills? How much do you want to learn? How much patience do you have? This presentation may be of use when deciding which path you want to take.
After your audiobook is recorded and ready to go, upload it to Audible, Amazon, ACX, or whatever distribution center you feel works best for you and your goals. They all offer different royalty rates—although some offer deals where they offer free audiobook production for the lion’s share of the royalties and exclusive rights. If you opt for one of those, make sure not to violate your contract.
Translation/Foreign Rights
An author will retain the translation/foreign rights for their book from most publishers. Selling these rights is a great way to earn extra profit, because you have to do little to no extra work, yet you can still make a substantial amount of money.
Typically, a literary agent will connect with a foreign rights agent that they think would like the book, much like how they sell a book to a publisher. They may have worked with them previously and know what they’re looking for, or sometimes they take books they’d like to sell to book festivals and expos, such as Book Expo America, and talk to foreign rights agents looking to buy.
The foreign rights agent will work to sell your book to publishers abroad. They may first have to get it translated, or sometimes the publisher will take care of that. Either way, the literary agent and the foreign rights agent will split the agent’s share of royalties.
If you don’t have an agent, you can approach foreign rights agents on your own, but much like when trying to get a publisher, you have a much better chance when you have representation.
Here at SparkPress, the majority of our authors come in without an agent. We have an agent on our team who represents all previously un-agented SparkPress and She Writes Press authors to sell foreign rights, amongst other duties.
Dramatic Rights
These rights can be for film, television, or even stage adaptations. In most contracts, these rights will be retained by the author. This is another way to make money off your book without much extra work.
Typically, you will need an agent separate from your literary agent (but make sure to ask your literary agent if they do dramatic rights as well, or if they have a film agent that they think would be a good fit). The film agent will pitch your book to producers and see if they want to option it. You could pitch producers on your own, but again, you’ll be taken much more seriously with an agent. The agent will also negotiate a good optioning price and purchase price.
“Optioning a book” is when a producer pays the author to have the exclusive option to produce the book. Most initial optioning periods last only 12-18 months, but they can also add on extensions. This is time for the producer to hire a writer to adapt the book, raise the capital to produce it, and start hiring a cast and crew. During the optioning period, the author may not pursue any other adaptions of the work. If the optioning period expires and the producer does not extend it, then the author/agent is free to once again pursue other options.
If the project gets the green light and is produced, then on the first day of filming, you will be paid the purchase price (typically about 2-3% of the production’s budget).
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