Unlocking Efficiency: BISG’s Proposed Standards for Translation Rights Royalty Statements

Written by: Kris Kliemann and Sharon Haig

As the annual Frankfurt Book Fair rapidly approaches, considerations around best practices for licensing translation rights are in the air. Many rights directors for publishers and literary agents are prepping rights guides and working on pitches about their best books. Many are feeling hopeful about the possibility that ‘this one’ will be a big hit in multiple languages, and that it will sell well not only in the author’s home language and territory, but find an audience far beyond, perhaps making a profound difference around the world.

Those who “know,” know that licensing translation rights is a long game… a set up of the dominoes that will fall in a perfect pattern one-by-one as editors around the world hear about the book, read that partial manuscript, have their publication offers negotiated and accepted, sign a contract, and, after finding just the right translator, publish that fine book.

It is an exciting process, necessarily complex at every stage, and fraught with critical follow ups, including the excitement after publication in a new language, when rights holders eagerly await the arrival of royalty statements from the translation publisher. How many copies have sold? Have the terms of the translation contract (advances, royalty rates, etc.) yielded actual earnings? Is the book a success in terms of readership, reviews, and additional income for the original publishing house, the literary agent, the author? These reports—royalty statements—are one of the measures of success and a critical piece of publishing communication.

Unfortunately, these important reports are too often incomplete, incorrect, late in arriving, and a time-consuming pain point for both the sender and the receiver. Questions about the details are inefficient and tedious – and ultimately, the hoped-for insights that can come from clear reporting simply don’t materialize. If we can’t collect, collate, and analyze the information, we don’t have the ability to act on knowledge about markets in a way that can affect future business positively—for that title, for that author, and even for other books and authors in that genre and market.

BISG is very sensitive to this challenge. In an attempt to quantify these pain points around statements, the organization's Rights Committee conducted a survey last year to solicit feedback about these pain points. One of the more startling findings resulted from the question about actual time spent reviewing statements (see respondent charts below). Extrapolating the average time spent reviewing statements against the number of statements received, the cumulative estimate of time these 41 respondents spent is 4.5 work years (2,000 hours per year) to process a single years’ worth of statements! While the calculated estimate may not be true for all, it is directionally correct and a quantifiable validation of the pain our rights professionals face every day.

At BISG, we know that when the publishing process is messy, standards are a great solution. Over the last year, a BISG Rights Committee working group has researched and outlined a set of best practices and proposed standards related to royalty reporting and contract payment paperwork. Many stakeholders have come together, including the agenting community (Pamela Malpas and Marianne Merola); the international co-agent side (Sebastian Ritscher); and publishing rights managers and experts in the US and the UK (Helen Monroe, O’Reilly Book, Clare Hodder, Rights2Gether). You can find our ideas and proposed standards here. 

Our plan is to continue the discussion, widening the circle of engaged advocates for the solution to include additional members of the rights holder communities, as well as to receive input from publishers around the world who ‘license in’ translation rights and are responsible for distributing royalty statements. As we continue to refine our list and outline the process, we’re aiming to find participants on all sides who will begin to adopt and practice these standards. The ripple effect of improvements in this segment of our communication will be a continuing process but the rewards are clear: less time wrangling data, more time with actionable insights, and deeper conversations about good books and good business.  

In order to grow the conversation around this solution, BISG and the Frankfurt Buchmesse Rights and LitAg teams will host a meeting in Frankfurt on Friday, October 18, from 11:00AM-12:00PM in Conference Room Encounter (Hall 5.0). We invite all international rights professionals to join us in becoming part of the solution, especially at this stage, where comments and input across the spectrum will help improve the eventual standard we recommend to the industry. RSVP to Riky Stock at R.Stock@buchmesse.de.

We look forward to meeting you there!