BFLA Open Week: Tax Forms

Written by Tabitha Topping

For any author it’s obviously incredibly exciting when a translation rights deal is done, however there is an aspect of these sort of deals that is rarely discussed… tax forms.

For the uninitiated, many countries have double taxation agreements with one another which means if a resident of one country is expecting income from another and they have the relevant documentation, they can avoid paying tax twice. Sounds simple, right? You’d be surprised…

At the beginning of each calendar year we have to assess which of our clients are most likely to receive translation rights income and from where. Are we in the middle of negotiating a Spanish deal for Author A? Has Author B been selling well in France, and are we expecting a sizeable royalty payment for them? Often it can be difficult to predict, but once we have a list (and obviously this list is not comprehensive – for example, we often make translation rights deals later in the year we were not expecting to in January), we can then send the relevant instructions to the relevant clients.

These differ from country to country. Some countries have specific forms that need to be filled out by the author and then stamped by their tax authority, while a simple certificate of residence will suffice for others.

We always advise that authors apply for tax forms as soon as they can. It can take months for tax forms to be returned to clients and publishers cannot make payment without them. Furthermore, tax forms may only be used for the year they are issued (Germany is the sole exception to this) so if an author’s form only arrives in November and misses the publisher’s last pay run of the year, the author will have to start the process all over again in January. This often means that large swathes of income is held up, which can be enormously frustrating for publishers and authors alike.

As an agency we are legally not allowed to complete tax forms on behalf of our clients, so our role is to mediate between client and publisher/co-agent. We share the relevant documentation with our clients and then send periodic reminders to them about completing the forms in good time.

Authors are obviously free to go without the tax forms and subject their income to the full withholding tax (and sometimes a tax form only reduces the tax by such a negligible amount it’s not worth going through the whole arduous process), but given the squeezing of author incomes in recent years we usually recommend that authors apply for tax forms.

So, in essence tax forms are great! They allow authors to keep more of their advance and/or royalties, which usually means that an author can afford to write more – yay! Unfortunately the tax forms process is labor-intensive and time consuming… but as agents we will be there for every step of the journey and do our best to make the process as easy and pain-free as we can. So, if you’re an author and receive an email saying ‘it’s time to apply for your [insert country]’s tax forms’, please don’t panic!

BFLA Open Week: So, What’s Going On In The World of Publishing?

5 Key Trends for 2024 and beyond

Written by Finlay Charlesworth

1.   Who Has the Power in Publishing?

Well, before we get into what’s new in publishing, it’s worth remembering that some things seem to always stay the same – and the list of power players of UK publishing is certainly one of them.

The Top 20 UK publishers by revenue remain dominated by the ‘Big Four’: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan. One of the big stories of 2022 was PRH’s attempt to consolidate further by buying Simon & Schuster being blocked by the US courts – still very much ‘watch this space’ story, with Simon & Schuster now owned by private equity firm KKR, expanding rapidly in the US, and perhaps poised to challenge the UK’s Big Four in the coming years.

Meanwhile, the Independent Alliance – not a single publisher, but a collective of eighteen from across the UK, founded by Faber & Faber – continue to grow rapidly year-on-year, sharing expertise and a distribution network to gain leverage and influence in UK publishing.

2.   Britain vs the World: the Export Race

Did you know that more than half of the UK publishing industry’s income comes from selling books abroad?

Not only that, but the export market for British publishers is growing twice as fast as the British publishing industry as a whole. This is partly down to finding new markets to sell into – such as Mexico, where sales increased by 328% in a single year – and partly down to publishers pushing more into existing markets, most notably the USA and Europe.

Is it all good news though?

Agents, authors and foreign publishers are often wary of British publisher’s attempts to drive sales of their English-language books abroad: export editions usually pay a lower royalty rate to authors, and the wide availability of an English-language edition can impact opportunities for authors and foreign publishers to translate the work into new languages.

3.   Romantasy Came from Nowhere – or Did It?

Barely more than eighteen months ago, there was hardly a reader in the world using the word ‘romantasy’ online.

What a difference just a couple of years can make – from a quick scroll on TikTok to the top of the Bestseller Charts, romantasy has become an unstoppable juggernaut. Combining fantasy and romance is hardly a new phenomenon (not that it was the first, but it’s worth pointing out that TWILIGHT is going to turn twenty next year!), but the new term romantasy has helped to unite a vibrant, diverse and creative collective of readers.

In response, publishers have found new ways to reach those readers: most notably through partnerships with Subscription Boxes, which have been a huge hit amongst romantasy readers in particular, providing beautiful and curated book packages – and rocketing books to the top of the charts while still being sold at (or even above) their recommended retail price: a far cry from the ‘race to the bottom’ seen in recent years, where rival retailers discount books as much as they can to compete with Amazon.

It’s certainly not hard to see why it feels like almost every editor wants a romantasy book on their list!

4.   BookTok Is Here to Stay – or is it?

For years, “the app formerly known as Twitter” was at the heart of the book community online, and while its still the go-to for many publishers and agents, it is clear that TikTok, the new kid on the (tik)block is going from strength to strength.

To date, there have been over 34 million posts tagged with #BookTok, garnering billions of views between them and having a profound effect on the bestseller lists. What was most exciting about the early impact of BookTok was how unpredictable it could be, amplifying books from across the genre spectrum and looking beyond the latest, most-hyped new releases, plucking authors like Coleen Hoover and Adam Silvera out of obscurity, years after their books had first been publishing, and helping them go from selling thousands to millions of copies almost overnight.

However, it does look like publishers are starting to get savvier at using it as a platform for their new books, through a mix of acquiring books targeted at BookTok users and getting their books in the hands of the right influencers early, with new releases like Rebecca Yarros’ FOURTH WING, Gabrielle Zevin’s TOMORROW & TOMORROW & TOMORROW and Emily Henry’s FUNNY STORY quickly gaining traction on the app.

Will this frontlist-first approach dull the allure and spontaneity of BookTok though? And could the ongoing US legal challenge to TikTok’s ownership make it all disappear overnight?

5.   The World of Audiobooks Has Turned Upside Down

And, finally, one of the great mysteries of the publishing world: what is going on in the world of audiobooks?

What we do know for certain is that over the past five years, audiobooks have been at the forefront of growth in UK publishing, consistently growing year on year far faster than print books – just last year, downloads rose by a staggering 17%. This year will further benefit from the boost of Spotify’s dive into the world of audiobooks, which began last October by offering Premium subscribers fifteen hours of audiobooks a month on top of their pre-existing music streaming service – creating for the first time a serious challenge to Amazon-owned Audible’s dominance in the digital audiobook market.

However, a lack of clarity over the terms of Spotify’s royalty payments has been widely criticized, including by the Society of Authors, and there new fears that the addition of audiobooks to Spotify may not only offer a poor return for authors, but dilute musicians’ earnings too. The full effect of Spotify’s intervention in the market, and its fallout, may yet take time to reveal itself.

With audiobooks more available than ever before though – whether through the retail outlets, streaming services, or the increasingly popular apps offered by libraries to access eBooks and audiobooks for free such as BorrowBox and Libby by Overdrive – and production quality on the rise, the potential of audiobooks remains massive and a brilliant boost to authors and readers.

BFLA Open Week: A Few Surprising Things About Publishing

Written by Caitlin Tubbs-Galley

On my first day interning at Blake Friedmann, I realised just how much I didn’t know about the publishing industry. Over just two weeks, I learnt so much. It was life-changing – to my career in publishing, and to my confidence as a young professional. The Carole Blake Open Doors Project sets a major example for the rest of the industry as does Blake Friedmann as an agency themselves. The internship was proactive, inclusive, exciting, and impressively tailored to my interests. I could probably talk about it all day, but instead I’d like to share a few things I learnt that may be helpful to writers and aspiring publishing professionals alike.

1.      Agents submit to specific editors not just ‘publishers’

If you get to the point where you have secured an agent (yay!) and you work with them to make your manuscript as great as it can be, it will then go out on submission. Your agent will send it out to publishers who will hopefully acquire and then publish it! Okay, you probably knew that already, but what I personally didn’t realise, is the agent isn’t just ‘sending it out to publishers’ for you, they are meticulously crafting a list of specific editors from specific imprints. They work hard to stay tuned in to every note the industry sings, their eyes constantly flitting from page to page, news article to news article. They spend a lot of time and energy to figure out, to put it simply, which editor wants what. All of this work gives your book the best possible chance at getting acquired. In fact, not just getting acquired, but getting acquired by the perfect editor for your specific type of book. I love this about publishing, it means agents, editors, assistants, and rights teams, are all thinking in terms of passion, of emotional investment, of real belief in the work. Of course, they are still very much thinking with a business mindset. They want to ensure lots of people will buy your book and love it, but alongside that comes a deep investment in your writing from everyone involved, and I think that’s pretty special.

2.      Imprints are essentially just branded lists of books

There is a bit of a joke in the industry about the confusing nature of divisions and imprints, so I think it might be useful to break it down a bit.

Division – one section of a bigger publisher, basically small companies owned by a big company (for example Dialogue, which is a publishing house owned by Hachette UK)

Imprint – the different lists of books within a publishing division (for example Dialogue has Dialogue Books which is more literary and Renegade Books which is more commercial)

The lists are branded to help separate them. So, Renegade Books is physically branded differently to Dialogue Books, as well as being very different in their goals and the books they publish. To clarify, a ‘list’ is literally just the list of books that specific imprint publishes. For example, Dialogue might say they have a highly successful commercial list, and they would be referring to Renegade Books. To make it more confusing, the books one specific editor acquires might be called their ‘list’. Someone might say, hey Caitlin, your list includes so many bestsellers! They would essentially just be saying, wow, every book you’ve personally acquired for the imprint has done really well.

Honestly, this sort of thing is more for people working within publishing. It is a way for editors to communicate clearly with agents, and vice versa. It is very useful for agents to know, in as much detail as humanly possible, what editors are looking to acquire, and what they have acquired in the past.  So, these imprints, these brands, are just another way to do that.

3.      Rejections hurt, but they are imperative.

There is so much that goes into taking on an author and their manuscript. Agents, especially those at BFLA, are looking to take authors on holistically – they want to support writers in the best way possible, hopefully for their whole career, and, if they aren’t feeling confident in your writing, they won’t waste your time. Know that, as a writer, agents are taking your work seriously. They understand how hard it can be because they have worked with so many writers and seen the struggles as well as the successes. But sometimes, even if they do love your work, they aren’t 100% confident. As you probably know, there are so many reasons why this might be, but, when it comes down to it, it just wasn’t right for them, it wasn’t the right match.

I know it might be hard to accept, especially if you were desperate to be represented by a specific agent – but these rejections are a huge benefit to your long-term career as a writer. Hear me out. I understand how hard it is to receive rejection after rejection. I got rejected from countless jobs and internships over the past year, and it felt plain awful. No frills could dress that mess. But then, eventually, I was offered the internship at Blake Friedmann, and here’s why I am so grateful for the time it took. I used to get emotional about every rejection, get attached to every role and question my ability to work in the industry. But when I got shortlisted for the internship, then had my first call with the lovely Sian, and eventually met the whole team, it became clear to me. As I sat on the train making my way home from my first day, I realised just how perfect Blake Friedmann was for me. An inclusive environment, creative people genuinely excited about the work they do, and a general work ethic I related to. There were times in my job search when I thought I might have to pretend to be something else, to fit a mould of someone who I thought would be successful in publishing. But sticking it out and persevering meant I eventually found the place that was the perfect match for me.

I never thought I would admit it, because I am a strong advocate for the fact the job search slog can be soul-crushing. But it’s true, the rejection, the perseverance, is imperative. Please, don’t change your writing for anyone – and I don’t mean stop editing, workshopping, accepting feedback, because those are all vital - what I mean is don’t go against your morals, don’t try squeeze yourself into a mould you just don’t fit into. If you do, you’ll simply burn out down the line. Please remember – agents love books, they love the type of books they represent. This is an industry of highly invested, spirited people. So, please, stick to your craft, be undeniably you, and if you can write a cracking book, I promise you will find the perfect agent, the perfect match.

BFLA OPEN WEEK: Bookselling, from a Publishing Perspective

Written by Tabitha Topping

I was a bookseller from May 2018 to March 2020. The bookshop I worked in was a small branch of a well-known book retailer – which, for obvious reasons I am not going to name - but suffice to say my experience of bookselling was, and will be, very different from those who work in independent bookshops. Obviously, the aims of all booksellers are the same (to sell books) but the way this is done differs hugely depending on the bookshop you work in.

I want to say now that the reality of bookselling does not match the cosy image often portrayed in films and books. There is no time within the workday to sit and read and very rarely do your encounters with customers lead to a Notting Hill or You’ve Got Mail experience. But bookselling is invaluable experience for those who want to work in publishing.

Looking back from my current publishing vantage point, I can see the many ways in which my years as a bookseller equipped me for the role I do now. The most obvious being the constant close contact with customers. As a bookseller you see first-hand how customers interact with books; which ones they are drawn to, the ones they buy, the ones they don’t. You talk to them: you hear their likes and dislikes, the books they love, the books they hate. Frequently your opinion is sought – they want a recommendation for their seven-year-old grandson, their sister, their friend.

The nature of the job means that as a bookseller you are constantly surrounded by books – giving you an excellent knowledge of the current market. This sort of first-hand knowledge is invaluable if you want to work in publishing, no matter the department you might be considering.

Something I think that is also helpful if you want to take the leap from bookselling to publishing is the regular interactions you have with authors when working in a bookshop. Most bookshops hold frequent events with authors (whether that is part of a larger literary event or a simple talk or signing held within the bookshop itself) and authors often dropped in to check we had their books on the shelves. Not only do these events and interactions help dispel any common preconceptions about authors (it turns out that they are regular people after all!), but being able to navigate the slightly trickier situations that may come up (e.g. not having any of the author’s titles in stock and having to explain it to them) will prove extremely useful when working with authors within a publishing context – again, this applies to whichever area of publishing you end up working in.

Something that I was keenly aware of as a bookseller (and perhaps even more so now as I work in publishing) is the value of booksellers. Booksellers can make or break a title. Customers trust them. Back when I was a bookseller, we had regular customers who would buy books simply on the recommendation of a favoured bookseller. Even when it was something they would never have picked up before they would unhesitatingly hand over their card or cash if a bookseller loved a book enough. ‘Alright then,’ they would say. ‘I trust you.’

As a bookseller, we had a few glimpses into the publishing industry through the copy of  The Bookseller (the trade newspaper for the publishing world) that we received every Friday morning and the advance copies of upcoming books we were sent from book publicists. We were sent the latter in the hope that we would read the book, love the book, then sell lots of it to our customers.

We would also get occasional visits from the publishers’ sales reps. I enjoyed these visits as it meant we got a sense of what was coming up and what books the publishers were really excited about. Publishing can be very insular and those visits were (and are) an ideal opportunity for publishers to learn from booksellers and their expertise regarding what was (and is) actually selling in their bookshops. Recognising the knowledge booksellers have is valuable and worth using would contribute a great deal to the books we publish and the way we publish them.

The bookshop I worked in was in a small town in the North of England, so my experience likely differed to booksellers in London and other major metropolitan areas. I value my time as a bookseller immensely and would heartily recommend all those looking for a role in publishing to get some bookselling experience – I don’t think I would have got my job without it!

BFLA Open Week: My Life as an MA Publishing Student

Written by Finlay Charlesworth

There are many different roads into publishing: whether through bookselling like Tabitha, going straight in from an English literature degree, or crossing over from an entirely different career path, there is no one set path into your dream publishing job. I was in my final year of undergraduate studies, doing English Literature and Creative Writing in Leeds, when I decided to continue down the academic route and apply to study MA Publishing at University College London, as my first decisive step into industry.

My interest in publishing as a field had been kindled by my course, but not, as initially anticipated, from producing my own work as a writer: I realised what I really loved was having conversations with my peers about plans for their work in the future, how to develop their texts, work out who their audience is, and make the leap from the word document to the world. There were two main factors that pointed me towards the MA – first of all, a lack of understanding about the industry: the specific roles available, how publishers function as businesses, and what the norms and expectations are within the industry. The second factor was COVID – by the time I graduated in the summer of 2021, I had lost about eighteen months of being a student, and I wasn’t yet ready to relinquish the freedom to learn and explore.

Through my Masters, I’ve had the opportunity to explore so many areas and ideas within the field of publishing. Starting with the huge, macro-level lessons about the different sectors within publishing, understanding who the major players are and getting to grips with the history of publishing; then drilling down into different specialist areas and being able to investigate my own interests in incredible depth; the course has opened my eyes to so many possibilities and niches in publishing that I never knew existed.

A Publishing MA gives you a chance to start by looking at the industry from the widest possible view, and through your studies roam between different sectors, roles, historical contexts, geographical markets, external influences on publishing and more, and to pursue your own interests as they emerge to you, no matter how broad or esoteric. We are prepared for working in the industry by being asked constantly, ‘how are you going to change publishing?’ – to use our academic playground to work out how we can apply what we’ve learnt, to shake up the industry and write the next chapter in publishing history.

Though it varies from university to university, it is important to stress that the course isn’t entirely based on long, complex works of theory and long, serious academic essays – I’ve been able to try and develop a great number of practical skills too, like proofreading and book reviewing; I’ve produced marketing materials for made-up books, I’ve designed book covers, I’ve produced profit-loss statements for fictional publishing companies, I’ve even coded an eBook despite having no coding experience whatsoever. I’m now building up to my dissertation, a chance to really get my teeth stuck into an extended piece of original research, interrogating the relationship between authors, illustrators and readers, which I am incredibly excited for.

The main benefit from studying publishing at university is definitely the people – both the people who run the course, a brilliant group of field-leading academics, and the guests from the industry we have the chance to meet, but also – and perhaps more importantly – your fellow students, who are heading out into the publishing world alongside you. I’ve had the privilege to meet some of the most esteemed figures in publishing on the course – from Bloomsbury founder/CEO Nigel Newton to the Managing Director of the Booksellers’ Association Meryl Halls, to authors, editors, book collectors, archivists, salespeople, marketing executives and many more. What has delighted me most of all though in recent months is hearing how my friends and colleagues from the course have found their way into the industry since graduating. I’ve always found making connections, the dreaded ‘networking’, one of the scariest parts of publishing – fearing that if you aren’t the most popular person in the room, you will be left behind. Doing the course has provided me with a ready-made network, extending across many different areas of the industry – some of my brilliantly talented friends now work in editorial, marketing, bookselling, agenting and scouting, in both trade and academic publishing, across London and beyond. It’s really exciting to know that we started our publishing journeys together, and we’re continuing onwards and upwards, through the industry, together.

One factor that held me back, however, was the cost – further study, especially in London, isn’t cheap, and I quickly realised there was no way I would be able to afford it unless I took the course as a part-time student and worked alongside. While it did worry me a lot to start with though, I have found that studying part-time has actually been one of the best decisions I have ever made. Studying fewer modules has afforded me more time to reflect on each one and consider the application of what I have learned to the books I read, the shops I see, what I hear in the news and so much more, which has definitely benefited my studies.

Pursuing work as well as my studies has also been massively rewarding – almost every guest speaker we have ever had on the course has sung the praises of bookselling as an ideal way to understand what is actually happening in publishing: from what books actually sell (yes, English Literature graduates, commercial fiction is important!), to how they’re sold, and even though I was only working at Waterstones for a couple of months in the run-up to Christmas, it was a foundational experience. After that, I worked returned to working in the NHS, supporting people with complex mental health conditions, and soon after I was able to secure my first job in the publishing industry at Blake Friedmann – and the rest is history!