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What are Subsidiary Rights?

What does “Rights Type” mean?

I know my book is being published in several languages, but I don’t see those deals listed here. Why?

How do I see Subsidiary Rights revenue?

What deductions are made to subrights advances?

What is an Intercompany Rights Type?

When a foreign language edition is licensed, when will it be published? Will I get copies?

What are Subsidiary Rights?

Subsidiary Rights—or subrights, for short—are licensed additional formats in which your work can be shared with readers or listeners. These rights include serial excerpts in magazines or other publications, licensed audio editions, translations published internationally, book clubs, large print editions, and others. These are some of the many ways a book’s impact and reach can be maximized both in the U.S. market and around the world. Our in-house rights department identifies these opportunities and negotiates licenses, and Hachette shares the revenue with you.

Each Hachette division has specific subrights teams who attend international book fairs, including the Frankfurt, London, and Bologna book fairs, and meet with domestic and foreign publishers on a regular basis. In some countries, the HBG subrights team works with “co-agents” with specialized knowledge of that country’s publishing industry to secure translation deals. The HBG subrights team is in close contact with the editor and author about subrights deals and is always happy to answer any questions, so you should feel free to reach out. Your editor can provide you with contact details.

What does “Rights Type” mean?

Rights Type is the particular kind of right being licensed—i.e., serial, audio, translation, book club, etc.

I know my book is being published in several languages, but I don’t see those deals listed here. Why?

The list of subrights deals shown here only includes those made by HBG’s subsidiary rights department for books where HBG’s underlying contract with you included translation rights.

How do I see Subsidiary Rights revenue?

As income arrives from licensees, the revenue will appear as a separate line on your royalty statement. Your portion of the subrights income will first be accounted against the advance, if applicable. Once your advance is fully earned out, subrights income will be included in royalty checks. Your subsidiary rights revenue splits are specified in your author contract.

What deductions are made to subrights advances?

The rights department negotiates the largest possible gross advance from a licensee. From the gross amount, deductions are taken for the co-agent fee, bank fees, wire transfer fees, and the subsidiary rights split found in the underlying author contract.

What is an Intercompany Rights Type?

For books in which HBG has acquired World or World English language rights, our contract permits us to publish the book in the UK via one of HBG’s partner companies within Hachette UK. Our subsidiary rights department will work with the publishing divisions of Hachette UK to try to find an appropriate publishing partner. If we succeed in doing so, you receive full UK royalties on all UK sales of the book, without HBG retaining a share/split of those royalties. These royalties appear on your royalty statement as UK sales. Your subrights team or the editor notifies you once an Intercompany deal is in place and HBG and Hachette UK work together closely to coordinate English-language publications and benefit from each other’s approach and publishing materials.  In the event that UK publishing rights are not exercised by a Hachette UK partner, HBG’s subrights team will submit the book to other UK publishing companies.  If the book is licensed by a non-Hachette company, HBG retains a portion of the royalties, as specified in the contract’s sub rights split.

When a foreign-language edition is licensed, when will it be published? Will I get copies?

It takes time for foreign-language publishers to translate and produce a book, and the process often doesn’t start until the book is published in the US. Our translation rights deals typically allow a foreign publisher eighteen months from our deal date to publish a book. We always require that they send copies to the author upon publication. The subrights team is always happy to answer any questions about foreign-language licenses and publications. Your editor can provide a contact.