Josh Getzler
I'm going to get back to my Waiting/Good News/Bad News/No News topic, most likely in two weeks. But something happened this week that made me want to comment right now, because it's the third such instance in the last six months or so. And I want to say off the bat that I'm very specifically not taking sides, but rather discussing the issue and saying how unfortunate it is that I'm even involved in the issue.
So I was lucky enough to sell three books this year where I was able to retain foreign rights for my authors. I happily secured an advance for each, then went to sell the books to a UK publisher. And in each case, I came up against the controversy of Schedule A.
Schedule A is the list of English speaking territories in which a UK publisher expects to have exclusive rights to publish. These territories include Australia, New Zealand, many African and Caribbean countries, India, and Pakistan. Basically, it's the British Empire, save Canada. (And I'm working without the list in front of me, so please excuse me if I'm leaving out a country or two, or adding a few that aren't old members of the Commonwealth). For decades, the British had publishing hegemony over these territories.
Now, though, American publishers are attempting to encroach on some of these territories, particularly India and Pakistan, and claim these as nonexclusive territories (so, in those cases, both British and American editions may be sold there). The argument is that Schedule A is a relic of an earlier time, and as many US publishers have opened offices in, say, India, they should be allowed to compete their. The Brits say this is a land grab; the Americans say there is no empire any more.
The problem is that they don't ever sit down and discuss this. Instead, every time there's a UK deal after a US deal, the UK publisher insists that their bid is contingent on retaining the "Open Market" exclusivity, and it becomes the agent's job to relay that information to the US publisher, who is then frustrated and annoyed. There is tension all around, and the author freaks out because he or she thinks all their deals are going to fall apart. So far, knocking on everything, no deal has actually collapsed over this. But it's happened with three of the Big Six publishers in the US, and it's clearly an issue that's not going away.
And I don't believe it should be my problem, or my authors'. I really don't much care whether the Brits or the Americans control India and Pakistan, or whether they share it. I just want it to stop being an issue with my deals. I'm willing to spend whatever time or effort is necessary to work out, say, electronic royalty splits; but territorial divisions, it strikes me, ought to be worked out on the publisher level. And I implore them to do so. And incidentally, I definitely understand that it is a real issue, and one with material financial implications. But it seems to me that fighting over each individual deal, rather than coming up with a more industry-wide policy, is a huge waste of time.
One of these days I'll actually discuss crime fiction. Have a good week, and thanks to everyone who's been following, tweeting, and otherwise looking at these posts!
Till next time...
