BFLA Open Week: Translation Rights – Beginnings

Written by James Pusey and Nicole Etherington

So, you’ve hooked an agent, and said agent has just submitted your debut novel to UK and US editors. At what stage does the translation rights department get involved, and in what capacity?

First off, it’s likely that the TR department will have been one of the early readers of your novel – we’re often asked to assess new manuscripts that an agent is about to send out in the UK, in order to offer an opinion about its potential for translation. We’d be looking for comparable titles that have seen success abroad and discussing amongst ourselves as to who we might target, and which markets seem likeliest. Each market has its own trends, periods of boom and bust, but there’s also a diversity of tastes within each one.

If we have a very strong feeling that the novel would be up a particular editor’s street, we might send it to them early, before a UK/US deal has been struck. The reality, however, is that the wheels of acquisition often turn slower than we’d like, and to give the novel the very best chances of success we’ll need some help.

By sharing your manuscript with trusted book scouts and our co-agents (our eyes and ears on the ground in capital cities around the world), we can ensure that the novel is considered by a range of the right editors. Co-operating with third parties in this way offers the novel greater visibility and gets people talking. Publishing remains a ‘people’ industry and fostering positive relationships with these contacts is priceless.

Timing is everything and it’s often the case that we won’t achieve proper lift-off in translation until the book has been sold in the UK. Given the vast amount of time, effort and expense that editing, translating and production entails, it’s important that overseas editors have access to copy-edited and proofread manuscripts, possibly cover art and design, and the boost that UK publication and its attendant publicity can give. This is not to say that it’s impossible to sell a title abroad that doesn’t already have a UK publisher, but it’s the exception that proves the rule.

The greatest joy, and biggest challenge, of our work in rights comes from successfully matching up a book with its perfect overseas editor. The first translation deal we make for a book is always a cause of excitemen, and can have a knock-on effect in other markets.

These are the beginnings, then, but, in fact, our engagement with the novel doesn’t end at this stage, or indeed at all. First publication, second (paperback) publication, reviews, prize listings, strong sales figures in the UK or elsewhere, all provide the opportunity for us to continue attempting to place the novel with suitable overseas partners, giving your novel a second, third, or hopefully twentieth life!

BFLA Open Week: A Day In The Life Of A Book Agent

Written by Juliet Pickering

There are no two identical days in this job, which most of the time keeps it interesting and occasionally makes it frustrating! But I have always loved the variety of the work: not just on the books, but with my authors and my colleagues.

Each book agent looks after their authors’ UK, US and any other English-language rights (including audio). Our colleagues at Blake Friedmann handle Translation Rights and Media (film/TV/theatre etc.) Rights, so we talk a lot in-house about what’s going on with manuscripts and whether they’re ready to share outside the agency (e.g. with translating publishers or TV producers), and check in on delivery, covers, press, sales – the updates are constant!

Here’s one of my days, last week:

• I’m at the Post Office first thing to post off some edits on a new novel, which I’ve done on the paper pages of the manuscript with a red pen. This author is not a fan of Track Changes on the screen (and to be honest, neither am I)! I email the author to let them know to expect a delivery tomorrow. Once they receive the pages, they send some emails with queries, and we bounce ideas back and forth as they edit the manuscript so it’ll be ready for imminent submission to publishers.

• An author, editor and I review the first draft of the cover copy for a new novel, publishing next year but being announced soon (and so the book will be going up online with booksellers in time for the announcement, meaning we need to get the blurb nailed!). The editor’s done a brilliant job but half of one of the sentences troubles me because it switches the mood from something joyful to something ominous, and I try to explain my doubts to the author and editor to see what they think. Sometimes these conversations are straightforward and sometimes they’re more painful, but I love being involved in the collaboration of details like cover copy – I feel very privileged to make even a small contribution. And, of course, I want to ensure my authors are happy and sometimes they aren’t sure about voicing their own concerns to their publishing team, so it’s my role to do that for them.

• I receive and pass on/decline several requests a day for my authors to read and endorse other new books; sometimes I write those requests and send them off on behalf of my authors too, but this is more often an editor’s job.

• My media colleagues email to check that film & TV rights in a novel first published in 2000 are free, so we can respond to an interested producer.

• I ask a radio producer to confirm rates for a commissioned short story for Radio 4 (rates are usually as per public BBC guidelines!)

• One of my cookery authors is recording content for a supermarket PR campaign, and delivering the videos for approval. I watch the videos of them cooking and get hungry as they eat a delicious-looking plate of pasta!

• I receive a call from an editor to discuss improving their one-book offer to a two-book offer, and then call the author to tell them the good news! I will wait for the official revised offer in writing, review the deal memo again (the main terms of the publishing contract) and the editor and I will negotiate on those until the author and I can formally accept the offer. I love this stage, of course, and I really relish the challenges of negotiation.

• Alongside my Translation Rights team, I edit my entries in our London Book Fair Rights Guide and chat to them about new books to pitch at the Fair. Looking through the books to come is always cheering, and it’s lovely to swap in some new titles and update existing listings with news of endorsements, press quotes, prizes and translation deals.

• My colleague Sian and I have a Zoom meeting with a Publishing Director, who has recently moved from Hachette to head up another publisher’s non-fiction arm. The PD talks us through their revamped imprints and the editors working for the imprints, and what they each acquire. These conversations are always helpful, as we can then direct our submissions to the best editor. We’re familiar already with publishers and their lists, but when they undergo a lot of change then checking in to hear about their new ambitions is essential.

• We introduce ourselves and our lists in turn, and then pitch a few non-fiction projects we’ll have coming up for submission soon, and note down which editors will be the better fit based on advice from the PD. After the call, the PD sends through an ‘editor brochure’, which is a list of the editors and their tastes that we can share with colleagues and keep for reference (until the editors all switch around again; something that’s constantly happening in publishing where editors move frequently!). 

• I run a check on existing submissions (i.e. a few books that I have on submission with publishers), chase a few editors, send out to some new editors, and plan a US submission for a book recently sold in the UK.

• First copies of brand-new cookbook, THE EDIBLE FLOWER, arrive and it is such a beautiful book! I’m so pleased with how it’s turned out and send a note to the authors to tell them how beguiling it looks and what a great job they’ve done. It’s their first book and does justice to all their hard work – there are only a couple of weeks until publication, so they’re working hard on press opportunities and spreading the word with their publicists.

• I catch up with my colleague, Roya, who works closely with me on my list of authors.

• I do some spontaneous research on French women’s names for a novel set in 1940. I found some amazing websites including one which has graphs to show the popularity of any name you wish to search for, in any year! God bless the internet.

• I respond to a load of emails inviting my authors to promote campaigns that include cosmetics, sex aids, holidays, hotels… really not as glamorous as it sounds, although I did get a bit of envy when sending luxurious gift hampers was all the rage a couple of years ago.

• An author sends me a long, exciting email about a new non-fiction book idea – completely out of the blue, but I’m delighted to see it! I respond to ask that they start filling out the idea for us both by drafting a chapter outline so we can look at the structure of the proposed book and ensure it offers all the idea promises. I’m already thinking about which editors and imprints might like this new book idea, and mention it to my Translation Rights colleagues as the author has a keen and very supportive German publisher who I hope might love the idea too.

• I fill out some tedious tax and payment forms on behalf of an author who is later speaking at a university in Chicago, so the author might invoice once the talk is done.

• I do a little bit of title brainstorming for a second novel; the novel has recently been sold to a publisher and we’re thinking about whether the current title will do the best job of drawing people towards the book. It seems like the ‘right’ title has become more important in the last few years, so we’ll see where we end up with this book. It’s a beautiful, devastating literary novel, and we want the title to do the best possible job of ensuring that readers find it.

• I respond to a few submissions that have been lurking in my inbox and I’ve had a chance to read on my Kindle. Throughout a single day I get around 6-8 submissions; I read every email (usually as those submissions arrive), send on chapters/proposals to my Kindle, and read the material as/when I can (on the bus or train; sometimes on a quieter Friday afternoon; often in a grabbed hour at the weekend/in the evenings). Unfortunately, I cannot reply to every single email because that would be more than a full-time job in itself, and I have all the above keeping me busy 9-5 – and all the books my own authors are working on!

• I email one writer from the submissions above to ask them for their full manuscript, and cross my fingers…

I usually sign out of work once my son finishes childcare, or if I have an evening event to head off to. I might do a little reading in the evenings, or I might need to switch off completely with a glass of wine and another episode of Couples Therapy (I consider it research for all the books about troubled relationships I’ll represent in the future!).

BFLA Open Week: Media Rights - The Inside Scoop

Written by Anna Myrmus

How our work is split between IP and screenwriters

The Media Department really serves two roles at Blake Friedmann: primary agenting for our media clients and facilitating Book to Film/TV options for the wider agency’s book clients.

On the media side, that means finding screenwriting talent, developing that talent, and pitching and submitting scripts to producers, before hopefully negotiating deals based on those scripts.

On the Book to Film side, since we’re not the primary agents, we don’t develop the material with authors (we leave that to the Book Department!) but we actively submit books to producers, based on what we’re hearing from them in meetings. So, in a way, we do assess material, but only for its Book-to-Film potential. We then negotiate the option agreements for Film and TV, to make sure our authors are getting the best deal possible.

Finding screenwriters

Sourcing screenwriters happens in many ways. The first is through the submissions we receive to our media submissions email. We also find writers by regularly attending different events like showcases, fringe theatre nights, and networking drinks. And on top of that, we try and keep on top of certain screenwriting competitions like the BBC Writers room to find emerging talent.

When it comes to submissions, we always ask for a CV and cover letter as well as a script. The CV is a way of finding out the work a writer has done so far, including any credits they might already have. I always like when the CV includes a list of their scripts, even if they’re uncredited, so we know which projects we could work on with them initially (if we were to like their sample script). The cover letter is a chance for us to hear more about a writer’s background and the kind of stories they want to write, and why they think we could be the agents for them.

When we read a script that we love from a writer, we’ll ask them for other samples, so we can get a sense of their style. Then, if we feel passionately about their work overall, we’ll arrange to meet to talk through our feedback, plus to hear about their ambitions for their writing, i.e., the kind of show or films they would like to write for and why. It’s also always useful to find out which producers they may already have spoken to or submitted to, so that if we do take them on, we know who we could build further relationships with, and who not to double submit to!

If that all goes well and we take on a writer, the first step is developing the script that we’ll send out to producers.

Developing writers’ scripts

When we submit a TV pilot to a producer, we usually submit it with a pitch document, which gives the producer the writer’s vision for the series. The pitch document outlines the story, the main characters, the first series’ arc, why it’s relevant now, why the writer should be the one to write it, plus any other pertinent information. So, when we develop a project with a screenwriter, we are developing not only the pilot script but the pitch document. This is because often a pilot script can be amazing, but if the story doesn’t have the legs to span a whole series, it’s hard to get producers interested. In fact, when pitching for TV, the idea is often just as important as the sample.

Developing a script and its pitch document usually involves a few rounds of notes, depending on how structural the changes needed are. The more the overall story needs work, the more work will need to be done. For this reason, we usually prefer to work with a writer on a pitch before they write the pilot, so that we can help craft the outline, and because often if we know an idea will be a very hard sell, it’s best we guide them before they write the whole pilot.

Then once a script and pitch document are ready, we’ll submit them, along with our own submission letter, to the producers who we know could be interested.

Assessing IP

Being active on books means submitting them to producers who we know are interested in that kind of IP. When we’ve read a Blake Friedmann book that we want to be active on, we craft a submission letter which we hope will get the producer to want to read the book. The letter usually starts with some information about the writer (for example, if they’ve written other books, we’ll talk about the success they’ve had and perhaps where they’ve been optioned for film and TV). Then we tease the plot and make comparisons to recent TV series or Film so the producers know where the book could fit on their development slate.

Then, based on the relationships we’ve built with producers, and the recent meetings we’ve been having, we submit this letter via email to those whose taste we think aligns with the book.

However, just because we’re not active on a book doesn’t mean it can’t be optioned. There are often wonderful books which we’ve loved but which are less commercial in terms of Film and TV. With these books, we tend to keep them in mind in meetings, and pitch them on an ad hoc basis, especially if a producer mentions the genre or subject matter to us. And indeed, with those books often an option deal happens when a very passionate producer comes forward, independent of our submissions. So not submitting a book doesn’t mean it won’t get optioned.

Meeting producers

On top of submitting new books and scripts, we also keep all that material in mind when meeting with producers. Having both the Book to Film and screenwriting sides to our work means that we get to wear both hats in these meetings and pitch a whole range of material, depending on what the producer tells us.

Meeting producers is really for us to find out what different production companies are looking for, so we know what to submit where, and for us to build relationships in the industry which will help our writers going forward.

We’re constantly setting up meeting with producers, whether that’s because they’ve sent us a new brief, we have new material to catch them up on, or because we’re both attending events like Content London or Series Mania.