Breaking into International Markets by Orna Ross of ALLIi

1: Sell English Language eBooks in International Book Stores.

“It’s taken a while for the free ebooks to percolate through, showing up in the international Apple stores, but I’m now … making between $1,500 and $2,000/mo overall in overseas sales… If I tried to target each of these countries individually through forums or paid sponsorships, it’d be a tall order.”

“It’s important to understand that the translation markets are each as tough to crack as home English language markets,” Jennifer says. “Translation itself can cost many thousands of dollars/euros, and so publishers have an extra financial dimension to their calculations. Each market comes with its own difficulties and the economic crisis is biting – trade book sales are down and publishers are cutting their lists and have less money to invest in translation and marketing.” 

“I’m generally trying to bring new thinking to the submissions process,” says Custer. “In addition to the usual pitching and submitting, I'm now experimenting with an interactive newsletter, which will help me track how editors (and book scouts) are engaging with the ALLi highlights I send them. So far, I’m pleased with the results of this.” 

“I sent them a brief descriptive email with the link to the trailer (for the book). This piqued the interest of a dozen or so who requested a review copy. Several of them took me on and offers for translation rights from foreign publishers started coming — Korean, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian, Chinese, and Romanian — with advances totaling nearly $40k. Several other languages are in the works. I strongly recommend using literary agents (as opposed to contacting publishers directly); they are worth their weight in gold.” 

“If your agent in a big agency wants to try to sell your books overseas, they give it to the dedicated foreign agent (who you likely don’t know) who then either shops it or gives it to yet another agent (who you certainly don’t know and didn’t hire). If you want to be an internationally selling fiction writer, take control of this aspect of your career as well as home market. My wife sold her last few books overseas on her own completely from start to end. On another, she sold it but brought her agent in to help with the deal.”

• Never, ever give up world rights as standard to a trade publisher or assisted self-publishing service. 
• Always ask any publisher or publishing service to give you full details of their plans for your book in a particular territory or language — especially how they intend to exploit the rights. If they don't have a plan, or you don't believe they will pursue it, retain those rights yourself.
• Similarly, check your agreement with a translations rights agent carefully.
• Works published in a foreign country are subject to that country’s copyright laws, not those of their country of origin.
• Be aware that if an agent sells your book in a particular territory, they are entitled to all subsequent income on that book in that territory, even if you subsequently part ways.  
• Have a plan but also know that publishing is an erratic, mysterious business and this is especially evident when it comes to foreign rights. Roddy Doyle's book about a Dublin based soul band, that uses the local vernacular to such a degree that audiences were issued with “slang sheets” going to see the film version so they'd understand what was being said, is huge in Japan. How? Who knows? Lots of writers have the experience of selling better in France or Italy than they do at home and having absolutely no idea why.

• Copyright covers literary, artistic, and scientific works
• A work created in a one of the agreement countries is protected under its own laws and the copyright laws of every other contracting country.
• Copyright affords the holder exclusive distribution and subsidiary rights (including translation, adaptation, audio, serial rights etc.).
• The creator of the work holds copyright just by creating it. Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to follow any formality (like registering) in order to claim copyright. Though many a lawyer has been give a fee from writers to do just that, it is unnecessary and no guarantee of anything.
• For printed works, the minimum duration of copyright is fifty years after the author’s death, though some of the agreement countries grant seventy years after author death.
• Copyright is a passive right; it has to be asserted and in cases of continued breach, asserted in a court of law, a proceeding that is usually beyond an individual writer's budget. 
• Having said that, its very existence affords writers and artists protection and is the principle on which the entire global publishing industry, with its rights contracts and fairs, is built.

ORNA ROSS is a London based Irish writer of novels, poems and the ‘Go Creative!' books. Formerly a features journalist, a lecturer in Creative Practice at University College Dublin (WERRC) and Penguin published author, she moved, in 2011, to publishing her own work. The creative freedom and commercial possibilities for writers afforded by the self-publishing revolution led her, in 2012, to form The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi),  a global association offering self-publishing writers a wide variety of benefits: advice, guidance and information; contacts, connection and collaboration; incentives, code of standards and encouragement towards excellence; and advocacy within the literary and publishing industries.