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Anne Beilby: The rights direction

Anne Beilby has been rights manager at Text Publishing since the days when pitch letters were sent by fax. She shares her career journey.

I studied anthropology, literature and languages at uni and while studying I worked in a couple of bookshops. I loved it. After I finished uni, I went overseas for a couple of months and when I got back I knew I wanted to stay connected to books but learn more about how they were made.

I saw an opening in the Weekly Book Newsletter for an administration position at Text. Text had just entered into a joint venture with Canongate, and moved offices. They needed someone to do front of house tasks, general admin, and also assist the publisher Michael Heyward. I love order, I love admin and I love books—it sounded great. And it was.

It was a steep learning curve. I hadn’t worked in an office before but my colleagues were very welcoming. Whether I was photocopying manuscripts for the editors, organising couriers and the mail, managing the unsolicited log, helping the publicists with mailouts and events, or working with the finance manager on the royalties, each day brought something new and different. The part I liked most, though, was when Michael would forward me an email saying ‘please send xx a copy of xx’. The person who wanted the book was often someone whose name I’d seen acknowledged in the back of a book. Wow, I had (almost) direct contact with that agent or editor.

As more and more of those emails were
sent over, I had more and more questions—why that book and not another, why now, what happens next? We work with excellent co-agents all around the world and they patiently answered my questions, no matter how big or small.
The more I asked, the more I learned, and eventually I was pitching and submitting titles myself. It soon became a full-time job and now that’s what I do.

The job has certainly changed since I first began. In the early days some of our pitch letters were sent by fax. Obviously that’s no longer happening. We now also have a young adult and children’s list, so I’ve learned a lot about those markets, and attending the Bologna Children’s Book Fair was invaluable in terms of putting faces to email addresses and seeing how each of the lists in houses across the world fit together.

And then there are ebooks. We didn’t have a digital publishing program when I joined. Along with so many others, I’ve learned what it all means (for now, though that keeps changing), and what is acceptable contractually—both here and abroad.

I know it’s a cliché but every day is different. On any given day I could be submitting a manuscript to our international agents and the literary scouts, and I could be following up on a previous submission. On a good day I’m emailing an author with an offer for publication overseas, and explaining what that means. On a great day I could be handling an auction for the rights to a title.

I am always negotiating head contracts with agents, publishers and authors for books we are acquiring. I am always putting new manuscripts for consideration on my reader so I can assess and contribute to editorial meetings.

At least three months of the year I’m creating schedules for various book fairs—Bologna, London and Frankfurt, and sometimes more regional fairs such as Salon du Livre in Paris or Taipei in Taiwan. I also create rights guides for these fairs to highlight forthcoming titles and key backlist titles.

At least three other months of the year I’m following up on the notes I took in the meetings I had at those fairs—sending editors, publishers, scouts and agents copies of manuscripts or finished books, or updating them with sales figures, quotes and prize information.

At least twice a year I’m working with our finance manager on the royalty statements, making sure the information I’ve provided her for subsidiary rights income (foreign rights, audio, film, extract) is correct. As I’ve created and negotiated the original head contract for the book, I’ll then take a look at the royalty statements she generates to check that royalty rates and risers, ISBNs and reserves against returns are correct. Now that our digital publishing program is in full swing, I’m always checking metadata for our books, making sure they’re available for sale in our exclusive and non-exclusive territories.

I could go on. Suffice to say, working in rights is a diverse position and a job that never ends!  

What I’m reading
I’ve usually got at least three books on the go. One possible acquisition for work, one we’ll be publishing that I haven’t yet read and one non-work read. So I’ve got a secret possible acquisition on the go and I’m reading J M Coetzee’s brilliant and unsettling new novel, The Childhood of Jesus, which we’re publishing in March. I’m also reading The People of Forever are not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu (Hogarth Press), about three teenage girls conscripted into the Israeli army when they turn 18. The frustration, boredom and tediousness reminds me of Roberto Saviano’s Gomorroah. It’s an uncomfortable read but I can’t stop turning the pages.

 

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Category: Features