Naomi Cartwright has always loved stories (although she’s often tempted to read endings first). It was no surprise to her family that she did an English Studies degree at the University of Nottingham before moving to London to work in Children’s Publishing. Naomi is now a Senior Rights Executive at Hachette Children’s Books and has previously worked at Puffin and Orion. She also writes short stories, blogs at www.bigcitybumpkin.blogspot.com and is working on a debut YA novel. Naomi loves travelling and among her other adventures once spent a month living with Navajo Indians in America.
What exactly does a Rights
person do?
Well,
in between tea breaks, we work towards licensing the subsidiary Rights we have
for all our picture books, fiction and non-fiction. The exact subsidiary Rights
we have vary from book to book but they can include everything from Audio to
Film.
Which matters because…
Subsidiary
Rights deals raise an author’s profile and help make their book profitable. Any income the author earns
from a Rights deal goes against their advance. This either helps earn it out
quicker, meaning the author receives royalties faster, or if that’s already
happened it goes straight into their pocket (minus their agent’s commission of
course).
On a daily basis
I
really do drink a lot of tea. I also work closely with pretty much everyone
else in the company; Design, Marketing, Production, Finance and Contracts. No
day is ever the same and that’s one of the things I love about my job. I could
be planning a sales trip abroad, submitting titles to international publishers,
negotiating deals or speaking to an Editor about a book they want to acquire.
A
large part of my role is working on Translation Rights and it’s really
important to have an idea of what different customers and markets want. For
example if an Editor proposes a new fiction title we’ll consider the word
length - translators often charge per word so a very long book will obviously
increase an International Publisher’s own costs and make it less desirable.
We’ll also think about where a book might sell abroad. So we’ll feedback to the
Editor that a rhyming alphabet picture book, (the ones that go; A is for apple,
B is for banana…) isn’t likely to sell anywhere other than America. Why? Well even
if an international publisher had exactly the same alphabet as us, there’s no
guarantee their word for apple would also begin with the letter A. Verse is
also notoriously difficult to translate. Art style is really important for
picture books too, for example whilst the French prefer quirky, distinctive
illustration, the Spanish favour more commercial artwork. As the old saying
goes, you can’t please everyone all of the time, so instead we always think
realistically about where a book is likely to sell before we acquire it.
Who knew?
That
they don’t have jelly in Denmark? I’ve always loved to travel and I really
enjoy working closely with international publishers, not just because of all
the weird and wonderful things that I’ve learnt along the way. Good working
relationships with international publishers is key and allows us to ensure
we’re able to match the right books with the right Publishing House so that
they will market, grow and build our authors.
I am in daily email contact with
most of the foreign publishers I work with, but nothing compares with meeting people
face to face. It’s also nice to finally meet someone you’ve been in regular
virtual contact with, even if on occasion I’ve been surprised at their gender: who knew ‘Erle’ would be female?!
In addition to the three main trade books
fairs a year (Bologna, London, Frankfurt) that my department attends, we
also go on a couple of sales trips a year to visit customers in their own
countries. Trips are a fantastic opportunity to have longer meetings with publishers,
pitching titles to them and learning more about what books they want and why.
Of course, trips are also an amazing chance to visit a country you’ve never
been to before. They do have a down side though and for me it’s not the early
morning flights, it’s trying to conquer my appalling sense of direction in a
new city when I don’t want to be late for my meetings!
So what really happens at
Book Fairs?
 |
| Bologna book fair is mere days away: March 19-22 |
Meetings.
Lots of them. And in the case of Bologna at the end of March, the occasional
glass of prosecco. Primarily these trade fairs are an opportunity to meet all
the International Editors we work with. We’ll pitch a selection of our newest
and most exciting titles, show mocked up picture books that we’ll publish in 18
months time, discuss industry news and find out how the books we’ve already
sold have done in their markets. If it sounds like a lot to cram into a half
hour meeting, that’s because it is and we don’t just have one or two meetings.
Most Fairs are 3-4 days long and it’s fairly common to have a full schedule and
to meet a different publisher every half hour from 9am to 6pm, maybe with one
break to grab some lunch if you’re lucky. I really enjoy these meetings though;
after all, I’m effectively being paid to talk about children’s books all day,
which I love! It’s not just Rights teams and foreign Publishers who go to Book
Fairs; Art Directors, Agents and Editors all attend which makes Book Fairs an
amazing opportunity to showcase new talent, in turn creating a real buzz if
there ends up being a title ‘everyone is talking about’.
So what is the next big thing?
 |
| Oh Crystal Ball, please tell us! |
Good
question. Rights people, Agents, Editors, we all keep our eyes peeled. It might
be a debut author or a genre that suddenly explodes, but it’s something
everyone, including all our international partners, is looking for.
There are
trends of course, patterns in the books Publishers buy or reject. Following the
success of Twilight, the YA genre expanded and there was a huge rise in
the popularity of paranormal romance, which is now waning. At Frankfurt last
year I was repeatedly asked for strong middle grade fiction for 8-10 year olds
and real life, girl fiction that wasn’t chick lit. But of course the real trick
is being ahead of the curve, which for us means having books to sell that will
be bang on trend in 18 months time…
A Right good job
I’ve
always loved stories, especially children’s books and knew that I wanted to
work in Children’s Publishing when I left University but I’ll confess that a
career in Rights was initially more luck that judgment. Now though I can’t
imagine being in any other department. I love working so closely with people
from all over the world, I love the opportunities I have to travel and that I’m
constantly learning new things but most of all I love that no day is ever the
same.
