BFLA Open Week: Why Audio Rights Matter

Written by Roya Sarrafi-Gohar

The rise in the popularity of audiobooks is one of the biggest changes in the publishing industry in the past decade. While this means that audio rights to books are potentially worth a lot of money, many authors may not know that these rights can be sold separately to an audio publisher, rather than to the book’s print or eBook publisher. It isn’t always possible to hold back audio rights, and it is much more likely with some publishers than others.

If an agent can hold back audio rights when doing a book deal, then sell those rights separately to an audio publisher, this is most often likely to mean extra income for the author, as it usually comes with a separate advance, and a separate stream of royalty income once the advance earns out. Sometimes it is even helpful to have a separate offer for audio rights just to show an author the monetary value of those rights.

As with book design choices, control of the production of the audiobook, including choice of narrator, is ultimately with the publisher, but generally the publisher will at least consult with the author on their narrator choices. Choosing a narrator can be an exciting opportunity for an author to bring their work to life in a new way, and sometimes authors narrate themselves, if they pass an audition. Narrating a whole audiobook can be more taxing than it first appears!

Sometimes an agent will also try to hold back radio rights and try to sell these separately. This is usually a straight reading of an abridgement of the work on programmes such as BBC Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime. A very small proportion of books get picked up for radio, but this is again a potential additional source of income. What’s more, it can often give the book sales a boost, as a lot more people become aware of the book, and if they listen to the whole abridgement, they might want to read the full unabridged version too.

This all goes to show that there can be a lot more to a book than just a print copy or eBook – there’s a variety of ways that a book can find audiences, and bring in more income for authors.

THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS BY EDWARD WILSON-LEE OUT NOW

Discover the vibrant life of Hernando Colón, Christopher Columbus’ illegitimate son in Edward Wilson-Lee’s illuminating new biography THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS out now from William Collins in hardback, ebook and audio. Helen Castor called it ‘a thought-provoking exploration of the ways in which we acquire, organise and retrieve information about the world and our place in it.’  In Literary Review Felipe Fernández-Armesto described the book as ‘a fascinating and beautifully written account of how Hernando conceived and assembled his library is set within a highly original biography of the compiler. It’s a work of imagination restrained by respect for evidence, of brilliance suitably alloyed by erudition, and of scholarship enlivened by sensitivity and acuity.’ You can also read Alison Flood’s Guardian feature on Edward and the book here

Without libraries, who are we? We have no past, and no future… This fascinating book tells for the first time in English the story of the first great universal library in the age of printing — and of the illegitimate son of Christopher Colombus who created it. Hernando Colón spent his life trying to build the first universal library of print: personally scouring bookshops in an attempt to acquire a copy of every book, he brought them back to his library in Seville, where he drove himself mad attempting to devise how best to navigate and organise the world of print.

Hernando lived in extraordinary times. He knew Erasmus, Dürer and Thomas More, was at the forefront in the first international conference to determine the circumference of the world, led the team that created the first world map on scientific principles — and invented the modern bookcase!

Hernando’s life placed him at the centre of the ages of exploration, print, and the Reformation: he spent a year living with his father marooned aboard a shipwrecked hull off Jamaica and wrote the first biography of Columbus. To reconstruct his life is not only to recover a vision of the Renaissance world, but also to appreciate the passions and intrigues that lie beneath our own disciplined attempts to b ring order to the world. THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS is an unforgettable journey through these layered realities — and a bibliophile’s dream!

Last night saw the launch of THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS in the beautiful Wren Library in Cambridge. Home to over 700,000 books printed before the 1820s, medieval manuscripts and archives, the Wren Library was the perfect location to launch the captivating biography of a man who dedicated his life to the collection of books. Edward will be appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book programme on Sunday 20 May to talk about Hernando’s library.

Rights to THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS have been sold internationally in France, Spain, Germany, Japan and Italy, with more international news to come shortly!

Edward Wilson-Lee is a Fellow in English at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he teaches medieval and Renaissance literature and Shakespeare. After growing up in Kenya and Switzerland, he went to university in London, New York, Oxford and Cambridge, living briefly in Mexico and New Orleans in between.

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Praise for THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS:

‘Edward Wilson-Lee’s fascinating and beautifully written account of how Hernando conceived and assembled his library is set within a highly original biography of the compiler. It’s a work of imagination restrained by respect for evidence, of brilliance suitably alloyed by erudition, and of scholarship enlivened by sensitivity and acuity. … The ‘library that would collect everything’ became, as it grew unmanageably, a Borgesian labyrinth of ‘baffling marvels’. Wilson-Lee describes it with verve and strews his account with Rabelaisian lists, incantatory and almost magical in effect, of the sort Hernando loved.’ — Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Literary Review

‘Hernando Columbus deserves to be as famous as his father, Christopher…Wilson-Lee’s greatest strength is the subtlety with which Hernando’s public life as a courtier and his private life as a collector are interwoven. Unless you like libraries a lot then the most important thing about Hernando is not the most interesting. But in these elegantly handled parallels, Wilson-Lee leads us almost by stealth to an understanding of his subject’s greatest achievement.’ — Dennis Duncan, Spectator

'T‎his is a remarkable and deeply absorbing book – both a vivid account of the extraordinary life of Hernando Colón, younger son of Christopher Columbus, and a thought-provoking exploration of the ways in which we acquire, organise and retrieve information about the world and our place in it. THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS is minutely-researched history that reads like fiction – at once hauntingly redolent of Eco and Borges, and sharply relevant in our data-driven age.' — Helen Castor, author of SHE-WOLVES: THE WOMEN WHO RULED ENGLAND BEFORE ELIZABETH

‘Edward Wilson-Lee’s terrific new book brings to life Christopher Columbus’s son Hernando, his quirky and dazzling library, and the complex worlds between which he lived. THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS eloquently captures the life of an extraordinary man, while making his era resonate with our own: it is about how we seek to organise our minds and our lives, and, above all, about why books continue to matter.’ — Joe Moshenska, author of A STAIN IN THE BLOOD

CHILLING MEMORIES RESURFACE AS SWEET HEART BY PETER JAMES IS RELEASED IN AUDIO TODAY

Déjà vu or something much more sinister? That is the question Charley and her husband ask themselves when disturbing memories emerge at an old mill house in this spine-tingling tale by Number 1 bestseller Peter James. SWEET HEART is released by Orion for the first time in audio today, with the story read by Anna Acton and a suitably spooky new foreword to the novel read by Peter James himself. SWEET HEART is the second classic Peter James suspense title to have a new audio release, after THE TRUTH last year, followed by its 20th Anniversary Edition paperback edition this February. The new paperback edition of SWEET HEART will be in stores in July 2018. A further eight backlist titles are set to be republished and released in audio by Orion, including FAITH and HOST.

Charley has a strange feeling when she sees the idyllic mill house with its cluster of outbuildings, the lake and the swirling mill stream; a powerful sense of recognition, as if she has been there before. Except she knows she hasn't.

After Charley and her husband Tom move into Elmwood Mill, sinister memories of a previous existence start to haunt her. Despite both their attempts to dismiss everything with rational explanations, the feeling turns to certainty as the memories become increasingly vivid and terrifying.

Charley is persuaded to undergo hypnosis – but in searching deep into her past, she unwitting opens a Pandora's box of evil ... and now the terror is free.

In January 2018, Peter was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award at the Specsavers Bestseller Awards, recognising his considerable achievement, selling over five million copies in the UK over ten years. He will enter the Nielsen 21st Century Hall of Fame for bestselling authors. In Poland he received the Lubimyczytać.pl Horror Book of the Year Award for 2017 and his outstanding contribution to the international crime writing genre was also celebrated last October, when he travelled to Germany to receive the first Rheinbach Glass Dagger Award for Crime Fiction.

Peter James is a New York Times bestseller, as well as achieving multiple Sunday Times Number 1s. His work is published in 37 languages and his novels have sold 19 million copies worldwide. His novel PERFECT PEOPLE was shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize and he won a Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel in 2012. He has won numerous other awards, including the coveted 2016 CWA Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence, and he was publicly voted by WH Smith – Britain's biggest book selling chain – The Best Crime Author of All Time.

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Praise for Peter James:

‘A master plotter.’ — The Bookseller

‘Peter James, Britain’s closest equivalent to Stephen King’ — Sunday Times

'James has a gift for turning mind-stretching subjects into novels that are irresistibly readable as well as utterly believable’ — Robert Goddard

‘Britain's answer to Stephen King and Michael Crichton' — Sunday Express

‘Grippingly intriguing from start to finish’ — James Herbert

‘A compulsive horror story . . . I cannot remember when I last read a novel I enjoyed so much’ — Sunday Telegraph

‘One of the most consistently readable crime writers.’ — Daily Mail

‘A superior thriller … agreeably chilling moments and entertaining twists.’ — The Times

‘James has been compared with Stephen King, but in many ways he's better’ — Daily Express

Bestseller Peter James’ Backlist Coming to Audio for the First Time from Orion Audio!

Orion Audio have acquired world audio rights from Isobel Dixon at Blake Friedmann for 10 of Peter James’ chilling suspense novels and will be bringing the titles to an audio audience for the first time. Peter has secured 12 consecutive Sunday Times No.1s, and his novels have won numerous awards, most recently the coveted 2016 CWA Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence.

THE TRUTH is the first of the classic backlist titles to be released on audio, read by Matt Addis, with a new introduction recorded by Peter James himself. Released this December for listeners, the audio edition will be followed in February 2018 by a 20th Anniversary Edition paperback. THE TRUTH kicks off a series of 10 releases over three years to bring the whole of Peter’s classic backlist into audio unabridged, including SWEETHEART, FAITH, HOST, TWILIGHT, DREAMER, ALCHEMIST, POSSESSION, DENIAL and PROPHECY.

Paul Stark, Senior Audio Manager at Orion, said that ‘Peter’s such a big bestseller in audio, it’s long been an ambition of mine to work with him. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to release these titles in audio for the first time.’

Peter James said: ‘There is something magical about listening to an audio book: it takes you back to the very roots of storytelling – the oral tradition – long before the printed word existed.  Listening to the spoken words can sometimes give us an even stronger connection to the author than reading them.  I’m thrilled at Orion’s initiative in making these ten backlist titles available in this medium for the very first time.  And I loved reading and recording the new introduction to THE TRUTH!’

About Peter James: Peter James is an international bestselling thriller writer. He is a New York Times bestseller, as well achieving multiple Sunday Times No 1s, and his work is published in 37 languages. His DS Roy Grace crime novels have sold 19 million copies worldwide. In 1994 Penguin published his novel, HOST, on two floppy discs as the world's first electronic novel. He has won numerous awards, most recently the coveted 2016 CWA Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence, and he was publicly voted by WH Smith – Britain's biggest book selling chain – The Best Crime Author of All Time.

Hodder to Re-issue Cold War Classic, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY

Hodder will re-issue Ted Allbeury's classic spy novel, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY.

Set in 1980, Ted Allbeury's THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY imagines Russia meddling in the election of a wealthy businessman to the US Presidency.

Hodder & Stoughton says the reissuing of the thriller next January is 'to coincide with the current political climate' and summarises the book accordingly: 'It’s 1980. The Cold War is at its height. Out of nowhere, wealthy businessman, Logan Powell, has become President-elect and is only weeks away from being sworn in to the most powerful position in the world. Meanwhile, British Intelligence has discovered that the Russians may have been involved in the election result.' 

Hodder & Stoughton audio editorial director Dominic Gribben said: "Ted Allbeury was one of the most consistently excellent and impressively prolific espionage fiction authors of the Cold War period and beyond. He deserves to be read more widely today." The publisher has also acquired UK and Commonwealth audio rights, from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann, and will publish for the first time as an unabridged audiobook alongside the paperback reissue. THE TWENTIETH DAY was re-published in the US this year by Dover Editions.

Allbeury was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the UK Intelligence Corps during World War II, and later an executive in marketing, advertising and radio. He began his writing career in the early 1970s and became well known for his espionage novels, but also published one general novel, The Choice, and a short story collection, Other Kinds of Treason. His novels have been published in twenty-three languages, including Russian. He died in 2005. 

Author Deon Meyer says: "I discovered Ted Allbeury when I was about 15 years old. I am re-reading him now for the first time in 40 years and the amazing thing is that that the writing has not aged. He is still as smooth and as great a storyteller now as when I experienced him at 15. The Cold War was a fascinating time. Now with Russia showing aggression, it has become very topical again."