By Ginger Clark, Agent, Curtis Brown Ltd.
Ginger Clark
There has been a lot of discussion lately about territorial rights to books, and whether they are going to become irrelevant in the future of our business. I have read several pieces online about how the future of publishing will involve global deals, global e-rights, and one cover for everyone. At Publishers Launch London last week Richard Charkin, executive director of Bloomsbury, said that he felt territorial restrictions based on countries is “obsolete,” and that Bloomsbury was moving towards buying World English rights in all cases when possible.
(Charkin did say, as well, that “there is nothing wrong with territorial rights and we’ll fight to protect those we have.”)
As someone who does part of her job in rights work, this discussion is very relevant to me. I handle British Commonwealth rights to the children’s list here at Curtis Brown, and I have done deals in both the United Kingdom and ANZ (Australia/New Zealand) markets. I have also negotiated deals for just Canadian rights with Canadian houses. So I’m going to take a different position from those advocating for world rights and world rights only: that for a book to be published successfully in the largest English language territories, it needs to be sold direct (rather than having one edition sent out worldwide).
Now, the idea of selling all territorial rights to a publisher is a good one in some cases. Sometimes, an offer is made that is so high that it makes sense to sell British and translation rights. Sometimes, a publisher has a strong presence in all the major English language markets, and it makes sense to sell World English. Sometimes, you have no other interest in a book except from one publisher; the publisher refuses to offer for anything but World; and your client really wants to have his book published. So you grant the publisher World Rights, much to your chagrin, and smile through clenched teeth.
But in other cases (and I would argue that in a majority of cases), the author benefits much more if they have a publisher on the ground in that country, doing their own homegrown promotion and creating a market-appropriate cover.
I’m going to use one title here to illustrate what I mean. It’s called Unearthly by Cynthia Hand and it is represented by my colleague Katherine Fausset. It’s the first in a trilogy in the “young adult” age bracket, and it sits in the paranormal subgenre, which has been extremely lucrative for some years now.
Harper Teen bought Unearthly and its two sequels in late 2009, buying North American (United States, Canada and the Philippines) and translation rights. Katherine held back British Commonwealth, much to my delight. I love this series: it has a a fantastic heroine — Clara — and there’s a real equilateral love triangle in this. (Though I remain firmly on Team Tucker — Team Tucker is a very large team, I might add).
The American cover of Unearthly
After Cynthia turned in the first draft of the book, Harper Teen came up with a cover (at right) which is fresh, and smart — and don’t you want that dress? I love the feather, too.
Cynthia delivered a fantastic final draft of the book to Katherine the day after I got back from Bologna. I sent it out as soon as I could — right around Easter (appropriate, as one British editor told me, considering it’s a book about angels). Then we sat back and waited for people to read it.
A few weeks later, we had sufficient interest from the other side of the world, and we set an auction date for Australia/New Zealand rights. The auction started at 8 p.m. my time. (Australian auctions usually mean late nights for me, and for Unearthly I was up very late.) Harper Australia won. Shortly there after, they came up with their cover — one just as beautiful at Harper US’s cover, but in a different way.
(At no point during the plot does Clara wear a ball gown. I know. A lot of covers are like this. Did I mention there are two really sweet, genuinely adorable boys in it? Focus on that!)
The Australian Cover of Unearthly
Harper Australia did a fantastic job with the cover and the entire package — you can’t tell from a photo but there is some intricate matte texturing on the book. They’ve worked closely with Harper US, and Cynthia has done interviews and outreach with her new Australian fans.
In October 2010, after having had an offer fall through from a British publisher over territory issues, we had another offer for British rights — this time, from Egmont UK. Egmont UK had actually passed on the book earlier, but their thoughts regarding angel books had changed in the months since they had. I mentioned the book to them when I met them at their offices in London in September 2010, with my client Elizabeth Wein (whose book, Code Name Verity I have also sold in three territories — US, Canada, and Britain).
The UK cover of Unearthly
Egmont offered shortly after the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2010. And a couple of months later, we had a UK cover (at right).
Again, another gorgeous image, but different from the previous two covers.
There’s a pattern, isn’t there? Teenage girl in an eye-catching dress, standing in the woods, looking pensive and powerful. It’s almost the same cover, someone might think, just with different color schemes.
But each time, it’s a different girl. Different hair color. Different dress. Different woods. Different angle of profile. Different sense of what the girl is thinking and feeling. Harper Australia and Egmont did not design their covers in a vacuum. They each saw the US cover first, before designing their own. And since Egmont bought it after Harper Australia, Egmont saw both the other two covers before designing their own. So that explains the shared elements.
The differences are subtle, and it can be difficult to articulate their regional significance. This is precisely why it is so important to have a local publisher who knows that the Australian cover is best suited for Australia. The British cover is incredibly British. The American is the right one for North America. I’m not sure that Australian cover would work in the UK. And I don’t think the British cover would work here or in Canada.
I want to point out that Harper US held translation rights and have done a great job selling them to places like Germany, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Taiwan, Turkey, Croatia, Brazil, Hungary, Lithuania, Denmark, and in French for Canadian distribution (yes, one can do deals for just French Canadian rights). Of course, the author receives less money when the publisher controls the translation rights (the publisher keeps a share) but the Harper US rights department has done very well with this book.
My job has been to coordinate with Harper Australia and Egmont regarding covers, publicity, getting them in touch with the right people at Harper US about production files, and, of course, negotiating the deals, the contracts, and all the paperwork involved. I’ve met with both houses before and after the deals (you really cannot reproduce over email or the phone the relationship building of in person meetings in this business). I’ve sent cover quotes, and promotional news, and reviews. I’ve gotten to pass along the great news of Cynthia giving birth to her second child earlier this year.
If the American publisher had controlled World English rights, perhaps they would have sold rights to Harper UK and/or Harper Australia, or even other, non-News Corp companies in both markets. Or they might just have shipped their own edition of the book to bookstores around the world, with the American cover, without any promotion.
I still believe that splitting up rights is often the right decision for a book and an author. You need a sales force on the ground, enthusiastic about the book. You need the market to have its own cover. You need a publicist working in that country, as Harper Australia and Egmont have done for Unearthly.
You have to know the market; you have to have someone advocating for you; and you need a publishing house on the ground looking after your book. Not just an office with one guy distributing the American edition — an actual, staffed publishing house with sales and marketing, publicity, and editors.
Three different covers. Three different markets. One title.
This is why you cannot have one cover on a book and expect it to sell well everywhere in the English language, and other languages. And this is YA paranormal, a particular field that is selling phenomenally well.
For Elizabeth Wein’s book, Code Name Verity (which is out next year), we’re beginning to look over covers for each market. The American cover came first, and I passed it to the Brits, who said, “it’s interesting, and we like it, but it’s not right for our market.”
Sometimes, it’s one cover fits all. A lot of the time, though, it’s not.
19 Comments
I think someone does need to articulate the regional appropriateness of each cover…otherwise it appears to be conjecture or and arbitrary “designer’s choice.”
Obviously local publishers know their market better and can produce more appropriate covers as well as devise better marketing strategies that “hit the (local) spot”.
I think that’s a very interesting article and that writers should take note. I immediately tweeted it!
Ginger:
I’m an author, not an agent or artist, so the subtitles of these covers elude me–in respect to why they work better for the different venues. You state that it’s not easy to pin down why the differences matter, but could you elaborate at all? I love all three covers, and would be enticed by any of them–which doesn’t make any easier my trying to define why one works any better than the other. ROFL. I’m in the US.
Ginger,
Thank you for taking the time to address this question. With more books being sold in ebook format, it seems that rights would also go in that direction. The direction being largely impersonal, just the bare text. Cover art sure, but it’s largely in black and white anyway unless you’re using an original Nook or Nook Color.
I do think it’s very important to consider all these elements, though I will echo what the others have said. Sure they’re not appropriate covers for the market, like the UK agent said, but why? What makes it appropriate for one market but not the other? I mean when I look at the US one, it feels like the polished, US, prom dress sort of look in the middle of the woods. The Australian one is rough, raw, more powerful and if I know anything from the Aussies I’ve met that fits them to a tea. And finally there’s the UK one, simple, quiet, powerful. Elements that really give a nod to the UK’s austerity and pride.
So a quick analysis may do the trick, but you’re the agent
We want to KNOW why it is the way it is, not guess!
Thanks for the great article!
I think the more important points Ginger makes are the following:
“You need a sales force on the ground, enthusiastic about the book. You need the market to have its own cover. You need a publicist working in that country, as Harper Australia and Egmont have done for Unearthly.You have to know the market; you have to have someone advocating for you; and you need a publishing house on the ground looking after your book.”
I have never fully understood the nuances of different jackets for each market though believe one sells better to Brits than to Americans. I remember how vast the opinions were on a given Knopf jacket from typeface to color and so on from the sales force… That said, for the eBook consumer, are they basing their purchasing decision on the jacket any more? A launch of a new author or series or author into a new genre seems to keep the art dept very busy to make a bold announcement when it hits the b&m stores. Price, promotion, user-generated reviews, author’s track record sway the end consumer for an eBook.
Ginger
Great post, I am interested in the legal aspects of “troops on the ground” in a given country where an author may be selling ebooks. When I registered US Copyrights will they stand up in other lands, I know you are right about needing to be local.
Well put, Ginger. Having that sales force on the ground is imperative. Having that slightly different cover for each market, also important. And for those folks who like to collect – three covers is a bonus on any book that is beloved.
I would hate to do world rights. But if that were all that was on offer…I don’t know. Interesting. Thanks for this!
Sure, it would be great for authors and agents if all books could have in-country/region publishers, and the genre of YA paranormal is undoubtedly saleable. But, it’s important to bear in mind that there are many thousands and thousands of books that will attract little or no interest from foreign English-language publishers. You need to avoid the situation where a book may be sold in North America only, but you didn’t succeed in licensing it anywhere else. So then the rest of the world has to be told, Sorry, you can’t buy this book at all!
FWIW, I think the UK cover is stunning! Judging the book by its cover, I’d choose the UK one over the US one.
But this is a great topic and I’m glad you illustrated it so well. I’ve always wondered what the differences are between US and foreign sales. Thank you!
As to world rights and cover design, I think it’s all up in the air. I publish and market primarily to the US, because that is my home turf. But I am sensitive about creating an appropriate cover to the topic, and sometimes I can’t because I can’t please everybody. The covers I did like were scrapped in favor of what the so-called “experts” told me should be done, and anything which deviated from their particular taste was dumped on. In the end, I will do whatever I can to generate an appropriate cover but I will not generate different covers for different markets because there are already duplications of designs on the market which cause confusion. Which cover is the right one? The one which actually reflects the plotline. I would have scrapped all three in favor of a painterly design which depicts the protagonist as she is, with a bit more allusion to the unearthly quality. One feather does not do it. A different ballgown does not do it. And a preference of hair color does not do it. Any alterations of that type only leads to readers being misled about the plot.
Great post, couldn’t agree more! Everyone -author, agent, publisher- benefits from the split in territories. No one knows his or her market better than the local publisher. And I’m speaking from a translation rights point of view here.
Tricky situation though: when you only have one offer for WER and nothing else, should you take it? Or try and sell it to the offering publisher for their territory only, and run the risk of not seeing the book published at all in the others?
And that is, if the publisher who offers is ok not to have WER… I’ve often been faced with -mainly- US publishers who insisted on having world rights, take it or leave it. And authors dream of seeing their book translated into English…
I looked at all the covers before reading the post and my favourite was the Australian one. I had to laugh after reading, because I proved your point – I’m Australian and for whatever reason, that over appealed to me in a way the others didn’t.
Totally agree. Not a covers person, at all. But any doubts I had about the importance of the different images were removed by looking at the several different editions of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. Sometimes Hannah is blond. Sometimes she’s a brunette. It’s sometimes a micro-close-up. Sometimes it’s a full body shot. They’re really different. And the girls all look omre like the country the book is being marketed to than the American-looking girl on the original.
Books having different covers throughout the world just irritates me as a reader. maybe what that book needed was a world wide competition to find the best interpretation – which seemed to be the whited out slightly otherworldly look – presumably a reflection of what the book is actually about. It seems quite often the illustrator has not read the book or at least skimmed their way through it – or didn’t get a good description from the publisher. The first one looked awfully close to the new Duchess of Cambridge! Surely the effectiveness of the marketing in each country depends on a lot of factors – not just the cover, and i would have liked to hear what those factors are.
I am an Australian reader who argues vehemently for worldwide ebook rights.
Yes the article above raises some valid points, but Australia is a smaller market, the percentage of US/UK releases that actually get picked up here is minimal. Especially in genre fiction, so wouldn’t it be better to have the books at least available??
I agree promotion & marketing are more targeted with in-country representation, but I don’t think the cover art should be a major focus of the argument. I used to work in the fragrance industry and we didn’t change perfume bottles or packaging for every market. What made the difference was having a local sales force to promote the product in a way that made sense for that market. I see this as the same. Redoing the cover art doesn’t change the story really, which will appeal to a certain type of reader no matter what country.
By the way, I’m a US reader and I prefer the Australian cover.
I love these covers! Very professional and beautiful.
As an author, I do find the business of rights rather baffling, but I think it’s a case of swings and roundabouts and working out what is best for the book. I’m very happy to leave all that to my agent, who I trust.
I agree that different covers work in different territories, but one thing that did concern me was the inaccuracy of the Unearthly covers. I know I haven’t read the book, but unless it’s about a girl who likes wearing different ball gowns to match her different colour hair, then how can they bear resemblance to the heroine? I know a lot of authors feel very frustrated by their covers for this reason. If my heroine is blonde, I wouldn’t want a brunette on the cover. And I wouldn’t want to be the person who tried to put her in a ballgown!
Coming very late to the conversation, but since I found it on a recent search…
As other posters have said – isn’t it more important to have a cover that reflects the story and the heroine in some way?
I haven’t read the book, so can’t say which one is more relevant, but they all convey something different. The UK one is the only one where I get a feeling that the story involves something ghostly, although it does dip into horror cover territory. The US one looks like it’s a girl’s romance, possibly set a while back as it doesn’t look very modern, but I don’t pick up anything about it being a supernatural story. The Australian one sits somewhere between the two.
Seems to me that the designers were simply trying to improve on a previous cover without changing it drastically (they didn’t read the book either) but that the local publishers phrased it as being essential to the local market to justify the local design costs and to avoid any arguments about them not liking the previous cover for the book (they’re all good in their own right).
Not saying there isn’t ever any need for cover design differences between territories but I don’t see this as a good example of that, and generally it should be secondary to representing the story as otherwise it can be totally misleading. With the above example I’d think they were different books, one a Mills & Boon, another a spooky story.