By Hannah Johnson
As the year comes to a close, Publishing Perspectives is looking back at our most-read articles of the year. In the field of rights and licensing, our contributors covered the globe from Beijing to Serbia. We wrote about trends in digital and self-publishing, explored growing rights territories, and highlighted copyright and licensing issues.
Take a look at our top 10 rights articles of 2014, or browse our rights archive to read more about global book rights and licensing.
1: 9 “Don’ts for Publishers” 2014 Edition
By Edward Nawotka
Richard Charkin of Bloomsbury UK, offered a list of “Don’ts for Publishers,” riffing on Bloomsbury’s two million-copy bestselling revivals from 1913: Don’ts for Husbands and Don’ts for Wives.
2: Yawn No More: Americans and the Market for Foreign Fiction
By Saskia Vogel
As proven by the conversations at BookExpo America, American publishers, editors and readers may finally be coming around to embracing more foreign literature.
3: Global Book Market Snapshots: France and Germany
By Tom Chalmers
France and Germany are two of Europe’s largest publishing powerhouses. Global demand for French books appears to be on the rise, and Germany is experiencing a big jump in ebook revenue.
4: Book Publishing Market Snapshots: Serbia and Malaysia
By Tom Chalmers
Serbia offers high-quality literary fiction and commercial women’s fiction. Malaysia hosts Southeast Asia’s largest rights fair and the government actively supports digital publishing initiatives in education.
5: An Insider’s Guide to How One UK Agency Places Its Writers
By Andrew Lownie
Andrew Lownie, recently short-listed for The Bookseller UK literary agent of the year, explains how the agency goes about selling its authors.
6: India’s Buoyant Book Market Attracts More Foreign Deals
By Libby Whitehouse
From IPR License, Libby Whitehouse looks at whether India’s effervescent literary culture is attracting established and new writers from either side of the Atlantic.
7: Life and Death at Frankfurt
By Barbara J. Zitwer
Literary agent Barbara J. Zitwer reflects on the pivotal role the Frankfurt Book Fair has played in her life and career.
8: When Courts Adjudicate the Quality of Literary Characters
By Dennis Abrams
In a January 2014 copyright trial, the courts were forced to decide if the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Watson were so well-rounded that they couldn’t be parsed.
9: World Rights vs. Territorial Rights: What Are the Advantages?
By Edward Nawotka
Frequently, literary agents argue that selling the territorial rights for a book has advantages over selling world rights. But in many cases, it also makes sense to sell world rights.
10: The Beijing Cookbook Fair: Tasting the $4bn Global Cookbook Market
By Hannah Johnson
For Gourmand’s new Beijing Cookbook Fair, launched this year, publishers came from around the world for a taste of China’s and the world’s $4 billion cookbook market.