Commonly
Asked Questions
What are ancillary rights?
Who owns/controls the ancillary rights?
As the copyright owner, what rights do I have?
What if I don't own all the rights?
Who Should Market Ancillary Rights?
How are the Ancillary Rights marketed?
What are some of the points that are negotiated in a
Foreign Translation contract?
What are ancillary rights?
In a book publishing contract there are two rights: Primary Rights which
are those rights that a publisher intends to use; and secondary rights
which are Ancillary Rights, sometimes referred to as subsidiary rights.
Ancillary rights are secondary to the right of publishing the literary
work in book form.
Who owns/controls the ancillary rights?
In today's publishing world, the publisher owns most, if not all, the
copyright ownership of a particular literary work. The reason is simple:
There is an ever-increasing demand for literary content and the publisher
wants to benefit from the sale the ancillary rights. In addition, publishers
normally have access to the market, whereas the author does not.
As the copyright owner, what rights do I have?
As a copyright owner of a literary property, you have the right to reproduce
the work and prepare derivative works based on the work. You also have
the right to distribute copies, display and perform the work to the public.
These rights can be subdivided in many ways by format, language, territory
or term.
What if I don't own all the rights?
Sometimes an author successfully negotiates with a publisher a "bundle
of rights" clause in their publishing contract whereby the author assigns
to the publisher select copyright ownership of a literary work while keeping
certain rights. International Book Management Corporation can represent
all or some of the ancillary rights controlled by the publisher.
Who Should Market Ancillary Rights?
A publisher can sell their ancillary rights to a third party, however,
many publisher do not have the time, expertise or contacts. Because of
this, many publishers hire a company to market the ancillary rights. International
Book Management Corporation specializes in the marketing of ancillary
rights. When we are successful in exploiting a certain ancillary right,
IBMC is compensated by receiving a small commission which is normally
divided between the publisher and the author's share. While this small
commission reduces the amount of the compensation to both the publisher
and author, the sale of the ancillary right brings in money to both the
publisher and author that otherwise they would not have received.
How are the Ancillary Rights marketed?
International Book Management Corporation attends domestic and international
book fairs and conventions. It is at these trade events that our representatives
meet with foreign rights agents and representatives from foreign publishers
to introduce, negotiate and sell the rights we represent. IBMC representatives
are very active in keeping in touch with our contacts abroad, and our
website is continually updated with the lastest information regarding
new, recently released and soon to be published titles. We also highly
promote our client's backlist.
What are some of the points that are negotiated
in a Foreign Translation contract?
International Book Management Corporation major points in negotiation
of a foreign translation contract are: Advance on royalties (an advance
is normally based upon 50-100% of the estimated royalties that will be
received during the first year of sales); the retail price; the royalty
payment schedule; control of the ancillary rights (should be maintained
by the client); release date; size of first print run (this is not always
possible to determine); the term of the contract; the territory (Example:
Spanish translation may include Spain and Mexico or just Spain or Mexico);
payment to publisher should be in that publishers currency ex: United
States in U.S. dollar; tax obligations and the party who meets those obligations;
the right for our client to use that translation with regards to other
media formats based on that translation.