I think this is incredibly useful stuff, and please do go on if you have time -- it's stuff I knew absolutely nothing about when I started and am still less informed about than I'd like. I was definitely your FTN saying yes to everything, I'd probably have thrown in zorinth if they'd asked. Patrick told me in that phone call "Get representation. Get an agent." And that's why I have an agent, so I have someone who understands all this contract stuff for me.
I laughed out loud at this -- really, Thomas came over to see what I thought was so funny -- particularly the zorinth comment <g>. And pnh was really honourable here. Not only that, but he did get to make the "I want this book" call for your first book, and then leave the horrible bits to whichever agent you wanted to call in after the fact <g>.
I kept British rights for Farthing, because I think it ought to sell in Britain. (None of my other books are published in Britain. I was pretty sure they wouldn't be. T&C is under negotiations with German and Chinese publishers, but not British. I just don't generally write to a British mass taste, and I knew this.) Anyway, in keeping British rights, I also got to keep rights to a hilarious selection of other countries, most of them tiny islands. If a St. Helena edition ever comes out, I'll let you know -- and as for Pitcairn Island, I think I could email it to everyone there in one cc...
That's funny; I would have said that your books would have done well in the UK, so it shows what I know. But yes, keeping World rights means that you do get a huge section of smaller markets -- apparently, the UK sale (for a North American book) seems to clinch the rest of the foreign markets; if it sells in the UK, it's much easier to sell elsewhere, and if it doesn't, it's more hit and miss. This from an agent, as I've no experience with any direct foreign sales at all.
Mine? They're almost all too long :/. John Jarrold loved OATH, but had a coronary when he saw how long DEATH was (1100 manuscript pages); it was the only time I really wished I'd broken that into two, or written it shorter, but it was a dense book as was.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-09-15 07:58 pm (UTC)I laughed out loud at this -- really, Thomas came over to see what I thought was so funny -- particularly the
I kept British rights for Farthing, because I think it ought to sell in Britain. (None of my other books are published in Britain. I was pretty sure they wouldn't be. T&C is under negotiations with German and Chinese publishers, but not British. I just don't generally write to a British mass taste, and I knew this.) Anyway, in keeping British rights, I also got to keep rights to a hilarious selection of other countries, most of them tiny islands. If a St. Helena edition ever comes out, I'll let you know -- and as for Pitcairn Island, I think I could email it to everyone there in one cc...
That's funny; I would have said that your books would have done well in the UK, so it shows what I know. But yes, keeping World rights means that you do get a huge section of smaller markets -- apparently, the UK sale (for a North American book) seems to clinch the rest of the foreign markets; if it sells in the UK, it's much easier to sell elsewhere, and if it doesn't, it's more hit and miss. This from an agent, as I've no experience with any direct foreign sales at all.
Mine? They're almost all too long :/. John Jarrold loved OATH, but had a coronary when he saw how long DEATH was (1100 manuscript pages); it was the only time I really wished I'd broken that into two, or written it shorter, but it was a dense book as was.