[H.M. Ward]

Yeah, I'm currently agentless and getting offers. I was wondering if there's a standard for figuring out what a book should sell for? Foreign rights in particular on paper, ebook, and advances. It's for the one that's in the top 100. It's been hanging out there for over a week now! (Eeep!)

Sorry if this is a repeat question. I searched and didn't see what I was looking for.

Bo shizzle. Peace out. Back to my writing marathon of madness. Bwuhahahaha!

 

[PaulLev]

Yeah, I'm currently agentless and getting offers. I was wondering if there's a standard for figuring out what a book should sell for? Foreign rights in particular on paper, ebook, and advances. It's for the one that's in the top 100. It's been hanging out there for over a week now! (Eeep!)

Sorry if this is a repeat question. I searched and didn't see what I was looking for.

Bo shizzle. Peace out. Back to my writing marathon of madness. Bwuhahahaha!

Depends upon the country. Small European countries - Croatia, Macedonian - pay $500 advances. Bigger countries like Poland can go as high as $1000 to $1500. France and Germany even higher. Japan can go as high as $10,000 (higher of course for best-selling authors), but China, Taiwan, and Korea try keep their advances in the $1000-$2000 range. These figures are all for either science fiction or scholarly nonfiction with initial print publications. Royalties are usually 10%, though some deals will try to low-ball you with an 8% or even 6% offer.

 

[Amanda Brice]

What he said. It really depends on the country. Small countries -- $250-$750. Some larger countries can be as high as $30,000 (depending on the book).

 

[Linda Acaster]

A very nice position to be in. Congrats, Holly.

 

[54706]

You should PM authors you know who have deals (I think I saw another thread here asking about that) and see if they'll share numbers.  Don't just take what you read here in the public forum as gospel.  The industry changes as the economy does and as countries start getting online with ebooks and everything else.  You don't want to sell yourself short.

And I would highly recommend you get a literary attorney to review that contract for you.  The guy over on www.thepassivevoice.com is a good place to start.

Good luck!!

 

[scottnicholson]

Don't forget you can also self-pub and get 70 percent of the foreign money (minus any translator royalty or fee). It can be done, and the advantages of self-pubbing foreign editions are the same as self-pubbing in English (with a little extra management and paperwork, of course.)

I expect foreign markets to be the bulk of the digital income in 2014-2016, and giving away those ebook rights may not prove worth it for a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars. Especially if they are offering insulting ebook royalty rates.

And the other big risk is that, even with an agent, you may never get paid, or not ever see a dime beyond the advance. That's the stuff people don't like to talk about in the giddiness of getting an offer.

And, yes, I have done both, and I wouldn't deal with an agent unless it was six figures (the other exception being that I will offer any legitimate publisher a zero-advance, royalty-only deal on paper rights). Plenty of people with more experience than me say "Get an agent." While I say, trust yourself to understand what you need and learn what you need to know, because NO ONE will care as much as you do.

BTW congratulations, Holly--you really can't go wrong except by inaction.

 

[H.M. Ward]

Thanks guys.

The main one I'm talking to is in Hungary. They want to translate it. I've thought about doing the translations myself, but I didn't think the size of that market was worth it.

Anyone sell rights over there recently?

 

[Mathew Reuther]

Thanks guys.

The main one I'm talking to is in Hungary. They want to translate it. I've thought about doing the translations myself, but I didn't think the size of that market was worth it.

Anyone sell rights over there recently?

No. But based on population they are 4 times smaller than Poland and twice as large as Croatia.

If the numbers quoted in the thread are relevant at all, you're looking at somewhere between $500 and $750 as a reasonable advance.

My two cents, and you can take them or leave them. If you have never been published in those countries and you are already thinking that it would be more trouble than it is worth to do translations, then you are not losing anything by selling rights to a title.

And you may gain an audience.

 

[54706]

No. But based on population they are 4 times smaller than Poland and twice as large as Croatia.

If the numbers quoted in the thread are relevant at all, you're looking at somewhere between $500 and $750 as a reasonable advance.

My two cents, and you can take them or leave them. If you have never been published in those countries and you are already thinking that it would be more trouble than it is worth to do translations, then you are not losing anything by selling rights to a title.

And you may gain an audience.

Not necessarily. In my experience (not Hungary) that is not an accurate number.

 

[Mathew Reuther]

Not necessarily. In my experience (not Hungary) that is not an accurate number.

My experience with Hungary is limited to never having been there and never having sold rights.

But the Hungarian people I have met (I used to live in The Netherlands) were on the average more literate than the Polish people.

Now, the Polish people have been in manual labor positions (think Latin American workers) across Europe for a while now. The Hungarians I interacted with were corporate types, or young "gamer" types.

But we're talking romance here, and I think that's a pretty universal genre. Women (and some men) everywhere like to read about love.

Regardless of the numbers (which are admittedly tough without an agent, but I you'll lose 15% of everything they touch) my expressed sentiment regarding expanding to a new audience stands.

 

[Mainak Dhar]

To be honest, the advance will vary a lot by market and also by genre, which determines print runs. Of course, the publisher's assessment of marketability (where your Amazon ranking/sales can help a lot) does come into play. Finally, based on my limited experience, non-fiction seems to yield pretty good advances even in small markets. Here's my experience till date:

Fiction (per title advance)
French rights- $4500
Turkish rights- $750
India paperback rights- $1500

Non-fiction
UK paperback- $3000
India paperback- $1500
Vietnamese- $1000
Japanese- $20000

Hope this helps build on others experience to give you a clearer picture of what the landscape looks like.

 

[H.M. Ward]

Thank you guys!

Stupid question: Since this is a translation, am I involved after I sign the papers? Or do they just try to convert my idioms and slang to Hungarian without me?

The book is romance and sitting around #50 in the kindle store.

 

[Mainak Dhar]

Holly

Congratulations on your awesome success! For translations, normally they'd do it all unless the translator needs to check on context or slang usage etc. All depends on the individual translator and how comfortable they are with slang vs textbook English.

Good luck!

 

[H.M. Ward]

Good to know. Thank you!

 

[sarracannon]

I have zero advice because I don't have anyone dying to buy my foreign rights, but just wanted to pop in to say congrats on your amazing success! You're rocking it!

 

[H.M. Ward]

I have zero advice because I don't have anyone dying to buy my foreign rights, but just wanted to pop in to say congrats on your amazing success! You're rocking it!

thanks sarra!