It might not be the most optimistic note on which
to start the New Year, but I offer this cautionary tale on the subject of
agents and rights. If I have one piece of advice to give – and this applies to
all creative people, not just writers – never give away your rights unless you
absolutely have to, and when you do give them carefully and in small pieces.
I have always tried to live my life being fair. In
contract negotiation, I aim for a win-win outcome. I like to build long-term
relationships and would never shaft anybody, because I believe that what you
give out you get back.
In January 2007, I had the idea for the Sprite
Sister books and approached Brenda Gardner at Piccadilly Press. I had worked
with her before when she published my ex-husband’s first picture book in the
1980s. She liked the idea of ‘four sisters, four elements, four powers’, and a
few weeks later offered me a contract for the first Sprite Sister story.
The Society of Authors helped me negotiate this,
along with the second contract. I kept back the subsidiary rights such as
e-book, film and television rights, which Brenda Gardner was happy about.
Then, in January 2008, as I was about to begin the
third book for Piccadilly, I had an offer for a film option. This was from a producer
I knew – had written a number of business features about her. However, having
gone through the process of negotiating film contracts with my ex-husband for
our newspaper cartoon character, I knew I would need an agent to help me. I
approached three agents, all recommended by friends, and they were all
interested.
As my first book hit the shops, I met with one of
the agents and I liked her. She said she loved the books and would be ‘honoured’
to represent me. I was very pleased and believed we had a long, sound business
relationship ahead of us. She set to work on the third book contract, but was
not happy that Piccadilly had world rights to the Sprite series. Having worked
for 25 years on picture books, I was accustomed to publishers having world
rights: it used to be the only way they could fund the cost of colour printing.
I understood that, as a small independent publisher, Piccadilly needed to make
money from its rights sales. It was a break point: Brenda Gardner would not
have offered the contract without world rights. That said, I had no idea of the
overall ramifications of the world rights scenario.
My new agent got a slightly higher royalty percentage,
but the work of placing the book had already been done. I turned down the film
option offer, as I didn’t feel it was good enough and it would have tied up the
books at an early stage
Fast-forward to June 2009: I was about to write
the fifth Sprite Sister title, which Piccadilly said would be the last in the
series. Though the books had gone down a storm in Germany (Piccadilly sold the
rights to Fischer Verlag), they had not done so well here.
At this time, I was not at all well. I was having
a breakdown and suffering from what would be diagnosed in 2012 as a serious and
rare gastric disorder. My mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and my
daughter was also very unwell. A few years before, I had gone through a bankruptcy
and divorce, lost everything, and was still struggling to pay the rent. Every
hour of the day was spent trying to write to survive. It was fraught – but it
would pass.
On 22nd June 2009, I received an email from the agent
saying she no longer wished to represent me. It came out of nowhere. There was
no discussion. I mailed back, asking for compassion – but the door was shut.
It was a staggering blow, but I would cope. The
long-term problem would come from the financial clauses in the contract.
You would think, would you not – from a moral
point of view – that if an agent dumps you within less than 18 months that they
would relinquish the right to their percentage of your royalties. Not so.
I called the head honcho at the agency and argued
my corner as hard as I could. We keep the financial interest in your book
rights, he told me. That is the way it is. What, even if Piccadilly sells the
Sprite Sisters to the US in five years time, I asked, dumbfounded. Yes, he
said, even then. But that’s not right, I said. If I dumped her, then fair enough – but she
dumped me! It will preclude me
getting another agent!
I could hear his shrug down the telephone.
The Society of Authors agreed with the head honcho.
It was tough, but that was the way it was. The agent retains a financial
interest in any rights they sell, even when the contract is terminated, they
said. In my case, because Piccadilly owned world rights, it meant that any
further foreign rights sales would also pass through the hands of the ex-agent.
The agency financial department would check the royalty statements each year,
but the ex-agent would not have to lift a finger.
In 2010, I set out to find a new agent. I
approached six at literary agencies big and small and was turned down by them
all. The rights situation with the Sprite Sister books was too complicated,
they said. It felt as if my ex-agent had screwed me right and proper.
I knew I needed to break free of the ex-agent’s
financial claim to future sales and to do that I would have to get back all the
book rights. The German rights would stand: she would get her share of those
sales and I would have to bite the bullet.
In Spring 2012, the first Sprite Sister book, The
Circle of Power, went out of print. I asked Piccadilly if they would reprint.
They said no and in the early summer agreed that the rights of all five titles
would revert to me. In lieu, I bought up the remainder stock of 2000 books. At
the same time, Piccadilly asked the agent to relinquish her rights in any
future sales of the books and she agreed. I was free at last.
I set about re-packaging the titles, publishing
print-on-demand paperbacks and e-book editions – and selling abroad.
I will have to give the agent a substantial amount
of money every year for as long as the Sprite Sisters sell in Germany – and the
signs are good with sales of 270,000. The experience stills galls. In October
2012, when my royalties came through, the financial chap at my ex-agency mailed
me cheerily, saying, ‘We love your German sales!’ Yes, I thought, I’ll bet you
do. Not bad for a year’s representation with no titles to place . . .
But I must look to the future. Recently, through
the Society of Authors, I approached an agent in Japan, who is keen to sell the
Sprites there. Last week I mailed an American agent recommended to me by a
friend. One way or another, I will find a US agent and get them to sell the US
rights.
This is an upside-down approach. Don’t have one
agent – get several. Get a different agent to represent you in each territory.
It means none of them will have a claim to all of your book rights.
If you have a UK agent, they will probably use subsidiary
agents to sell foreign rights and you will lose another slice. If you go direct
to the foreign agent, you have one slice taken off.
Brenda Gardner and I get on well and she has
wished me luck in my venture. I am eternally grateful to her for giving me the opportunity
to write five books for Piccadilly Press.
Occasionally I have to mail the agent and am
polite. But if I ever see her, I hope she hangs her head in shame.
A few
tips on rights as I see it:-
·
Read the
small print: when offered a contract, get as much professional advice as you
can.
·
Keep your subsidiary
rights: don’t bundle them in with the book rights.
·
Negotiate a
fair termination clause (if I had known, I would have tried to get a clause in
which the agent relinquished their rights if they dropped me).
·
Self-publishing
gives us the freedom to choose how and where we sell our work: use it to your
advantage.
·
Never, ever,
sign everything with one agent unless you have a very good termination clause
that works in your favour, as well as theirs.
·
Be a
buccaneer in your approach to self-publishing: fast, light and responsive.
·
If you agree
world rights with your publisher and they sell foreign rights, it is unlikely
you will see the advances from those foreign deals until the whole publisher’s
advance has been earned out. Nobody tells you that beforehand.
·
If you value
your sanity, remember it’s all a learning curve and there is no one ‘right’
way.
·
If you are
working on a book and need financial help, ask The Royal Literary Fund. They
helped me and I thank them.
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