by Jane
During Slush Week this question came up and I wanted to provide a brief description of how a publishing negotiation generally works. Undoubtedly, this will raise other questions which I would be happy to address.
When a publisher makes an offer, he or she does it either on the phone or by e-mail. I prefer the latter initially so that I can see all of the terms of the offer spelled out: advance, payout, royalties (including electronic royalties now), territory covered, rights splits and any special terms.
Once I have all offers in from publishers (hopefully there will be more than one), I take them to my client, explain what they are and which I think is best and why. We come to a decision on which publisher(s) to continue to negotiate with and I then go back to the publisher(s) by phone or by e-mail and ask for changes or additional terms. Often I will ask for a different, higher advance, a more favorable payout, different royalty splits, things like that. Sometimes I suggest that different rights be in play.
Most often, we come to an agreement in a very short time--usually a matter of a day, but sometimes, depending on what the project is, these do go on over a longer period.
If we arrive at a stalemate--that is, a point that we and our client will not accept and the publisher won’t budge on--we make that very clear. We call this a “deal breaker” and if we say something is a deal breaker we have to mean it. (Between you and me, most of the time these things can be worked out before we get to that point.)
Once this basic negotiation is completed, a deal memo is done--we send one to the publisher and often they send one back just to make sure we are all on the same page in terms of the basic terms of the deal.
We then go on to the contract where additional negotiation is done on boilerplate terms.
Negotiating a deal is one of my favorite parts of agenting; the process encourages creativity on all sides and often breaks new ground.
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Do you ever get offers that are exactly what you are looking for? And if so, do you ever still try to negotiate something better in order not to seem so easily satisfied, or needy? Can being easily satisfied be dangerous for the reputation of both agent and author?
ReplyDeleteGreat info, Jane.
ReplyDeleteCan you speak to what happens prior to the offer? The submission process of agents to editors?
Do you pitch to editors you know? Do you have to make appointments to pitch? Do you pitch in person, on the phone, email? When you send material, do the editors always want the full or do they go for a partial to see if they're interested and then ask for a full as agents often do?
Thanks!
Joan
We do receive offers that are very much what we were hoping for, but even then we try to better the offer. If the publisher figures that there aren't any other bidders, they often won't go up, but often they do and every little bit counts.
ReplyDeleteNext week I will do a blog on the submission process as I believe that is a whole other topic.
Isn't negotiation like making sausage? Most people like the end result but few can stomach the actual making.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft Teams is a tool for group chat that is included with our Office365 environment. Teams works as a channel of communication that fits between email and Zoom. It is less formal and more real-time than email and it is quicker for short chats than organizing a Zoom meeting. Each mode has benefits and adding Teams is not a replacement for email or Zoom.
ReplyDeleteteams login
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