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