Selling Foreign Language Rights Even If You're A Self-Publisher With Elliot Katz

Welcome to the next exciting installment of the Real Fast Results podcast!  If you are an author, self-published or otherwise, and you want to get your work out to a much larger audience, the way to do that is via foreign language rights.  There’s a bit of a myth among small press authors and self-published authors that it's difficult, if not impossible to sell your work in this way.  The fact of the matter is that this isn’t correct.  In this episode, you’re going to learn why and how you should go about selling your foreign language rights to your books and other works. Today’s expert, author Elliott Katz is going to share this information with us today.  He has a long list of accomplishments when it comes to selling foreign language rights to his own works. What we’re promising, and we’re going to deliver, is how to sell foreign language rights to your books to publishers all around the world, and really build your credibility in your home market, and build your market in other countries within every continent. Why You Should Sell Foreign Language Rights to Your Books Selling foreign rights to your books really builds your credibility.  Have you ever noticed that when the big publishers promote a book, they’ll translate it into 20 languages?  Or sell it in 30 countries?  When you see this you think, “Well, a big publisher can do that.  I can’t do that.”  But, now a person who is self-published can do it.  If they have a good book they can sell it all around the world. I’ve sold my book Being the Strong Man a Woman Wants: Timeless Wisdom on Being a Man, to publishers in 24 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The first thing is you have to ask yourself, is your book right for a foreign rights sale?  At first, I didn’t think my book was. I really thought it was for men in the United States and Canada, a North American thing. But ask, “Does your book appeal to human nature?”  If so, you probably can sell foreign rights to your book.  The next thing, in the past publishers went to foreign rights fairs in places like Frankfurt and London (and those fairs still exist).  For big publishers that’s great. But now, with email, you can also reach out to those publishers. So, the first step is, once you decide you want to sell foreign rights to your book, develop a really exciting email describing your book.  You can include a link to a television interview or reviews of your book, and of course, a summary and why you think it appeals to a wide market.  Then, get a list of foreign rights agents in countries around the world.  There are literary agents that specialize in selling books from other countries to publishers in their own country.  So, all you’ve got to do is Google “foreign rights agents”, and those lists will come up. Then, of course, send out the email, and one of the beauties is, just think, in the past, if you did this you would have to mail a copy of your book to each of the foreign agents. That would cost you a fortune.  Now, you send an email, and the ones that respond and are interested in seeing your book are the ones you spend the postage on to send them the book.  Then, agents that are interested in representing you will sell and market the book. They know the publishers in their market.  That’s their business.  When they make a deal, they negotiate a contract, and it’s a great thing. Making Money Selling Foreign Rights to Your Book Can you make a lot of money selling foreign rights to your book?  If you’ve got a big book, yes.  But, generally, you don’t make a lot of money, you might get a penny.  Of course, it depends on the size of the market, and it depends on the wealth of the country.  A wealthy country’s publishers pay more than those in a small country.  I can tell you, the advances I made ranged from a few hundred dollars from India to several thousands of dollars from more-wealthier countries where they charge more for books, such as countries in Europe or some countries in Asia. It all adds up.  For the amount of time you put into it, it’s a deal.  I mean, you’ve written the book already.  You don’t have to write a new book.  This is just extra money. And, it’s not just for the money, but also for the credibility it gives you.  When you say, “My books have been published in 24 countries,” that gets people to pay attention.  It must be a book worth reading.  So, it really helps.  It can give you a lot of credibility right here in the United States. Most deals are the traditional publishing deal.  There’s an advance on royalties, and then once the book earns back that advance, the publisher then send you royalty payments.  But, you know what?  Most people say just take the money and run. I’ve had some publishers to do that, and with other publishers, you’ve really got to chase them and keep asking them for royalty statements.  They just think they’ve paid you the advance; they’ll send you the 10, 3 copies. You really have to chase them to get royalty sales statements, and then there are additional royalties to be paid.  So, just take the money and run. No, I do.  I always follow up.  It’s just been my experience that a lot of these publishers, if I don’t follow up and ask them, to send me a report on sales like you’re required to do in a contract, it doesn’t happen.  Like, how long does it take to send an email?  If you can get additional payments by following up with them, that’s great.  But, what is hard about it is that they’re on the other side of the world and your ability to force them to send a sales report is limited. What are you going to do?  Hire a lawyer?  Hire an accountant to go audit them?  It can be a challenge. But, you did get an advance upfront, and it gives you a lot more credibility in selling your book than if you had sold it in just the United States and Canada. For a single title author,  it really depends on the country you are selling to.  From India, I got a few hundred dollars.  But, in richer countries, like in Europe where they pay more for books you can get a few thousand dollars. Step by Step - How to Sell Foreign Language Rights to Your Books Step 1 - Is my book suitable for foreign rights sales? The first step is to look at your book and think, “Is it suitable for foreign rights sales?”  If it’s something that you think, “Well, this will only appeal to Americans,” maybe it’s not going to sell in China.  However, if you look at it and it’s something that appeals to human nature, it might sell to a broader market. For example, my book is about realizing that men in this generation weren’t really taught how to be men.  There’s a lot of confusion, and we hear all of these different messages.  Men weren’t taught by their fathers and other older male role models how to be a man.  That’s really what my book is about, being a man in the way men used to be taught. I thought this is really just a North American situation, like you see on the sitcoms on TV.  It doesn’t really apply to all these traditional countries where men may still have their traditional roles.  But, I tried it anyway, and there was a lot of interest. The first offers I got were from Mexico and Poland. Then I got an offer from a publisher in Brazil, and that was fascinating because isn’t Brazil where ‘machismo’ originated?  So, I thought, “Well, you know what?  Let’s just try.”  And, I approached these agents in different countries.  I guess what I realized was that cultures may be different, but human nature is the same.  So, if you think it’s something that would appeal to people in other countries, definitely try it.  It’s worth the effort. In the old days, publishers went to book fairs, and they still do, and for big publishers, that’s great.  But, now with the Internet and email, you can just sit at home and send out 20, 30, 50 emails to foreign rights agents.  That doesn’t cost you anything, and you can do it all through email.  And then see if there is interest.  Are agents interested in your book and asking for you to send them a copy?  The cost is nothing.  You can just send the email out and your only cost comes when they say, “Yes, send us your book.  We want to look at it.”  There’s no flying to Frankfurt, no paying for hotels. You’re saving so much money.  Give it a try. If you’ve written something that would appeal to only people in the United States, it might not be right for foreign sales. If you had a book of poetry, it might not sell in various countries.  Also possibly picture books or coffee table books might not be right for this. But, it really doesn’t hurt to try.  Now, just being able to do it all with the Internet, there are no barriers.  There’s no “Well, I’ve got to travel to Frankfurt. I’ve got to stay in a hotel.” That’s like thousands of dollars.  It’s not worth it, but if you do it yourself from home, it’s amazing.  Give it a try and see what the response is. Step 2 - Write an Exciting Email About Your Book The second step is to develop a really exciting email about your book.  Give your book a summary, and you can include links to reviews and links to television reviews you have done.  If you’ve sold rights in other countries, absolutely include that in the email because that gives it credibility.  Just sell them the book. Just tell them why this book is a good book, how it really benefits people, and that it’s gotten a lot of really good feedback.  Just sell it like you were talking to a person one-on-one, trying to convince them to buy your book. Just tell them how great it is and why you think it would be right for their market, and anything else that you think would be relevant. Then, if you think about it, you can send in an email more information than just explaining your book at a booth, at a fair.  You can link to media coverage, link to television coverage, or a radio interview.  Basically, you’re writing an email that is, in essence, a sales letter, and you're basically making the case that your book is really good, has a lot of potential, and is already being recognized with reviews, or any media interviews that you’ve done, or even sales figures in your current country.  Anything to make them say, “Hey, I need to look at this book.” If you’ve already sold foreign rights in other countries, that also gets their attention and tells them that it’s not just stuff that appeals to a North American market. If you have good reviews on Amazon, include those reader reviews.  Include anything that makes the book look interesting.  They’ll say to you, “Yeah, okay.  Send us a copy of the book.”  They’re not committing yet; they’re saying, “Okay, you’ve got our interest, now let’s see your book.”  The book is what has to sell, and it’s got to be a good book. Step 3 - Find a List of Foreign Rights Agents The third step is, where do you get a list of foreign rights agents?  If you just Google “foreign rights agents”, what will come up is the big publishers.  They already have arrangements with foreign rights agents, and on their website, they’ll have a page of all of the foreign rights agents. So, when you Google “foreign rights agents,” those are all the agents that will come up, from big publishers and big literary agencies.  They include their email address on their site.  Just click on their email, and send them your email, which includes all this exciting news about your book, and offer to send them a copy of your book.  And then, wait for a response. Note from Daniel: After this episode was posted I was talking to my long time friend and frequent joint venture partner John Kremer and he told me that he had put together a resource with a nice database of foreign language rights agents and it was only $6. Here's the information that appears on John's website: Literary, Subsidiary Rights, and Foreign Rights Agents — This mini-guide includes more than 1,425 literary agents, including 325+ agents that sell foreign rights, 400 that have sold a first novel, and another 50 or so that handle subsidiary rights sales. This mini-guide also includes a sample foreign rights book contract. Ebook download, $6.00. You can >>> grab it by clicking here