It’s been another learning curve for this newb author over the past few weeks. This time, it’s all about getting my head around my publisher’s strategy to sell the foreign translation rights and audiobook rights for my upcoming debut The Love of My Other Life, which is done using an external literary agency.
So, in addition to being represented by my regular literary agent in New York (Victoria Skurnick at Levine Greenberg Rostan), my novel is also now being represented by Lorella Belli Literary Agency in the UK, on behalf of my UK-based publisher, Joffe Books. But only for the audio and translation rights, which are not yet sold.
The way my publishing deal with Joffe Books works is that they have bought the “World Engligh rights,” meaning they can publish it using their Amazon-exclusive distribution process, anywhere in the world. But that’s only in English language e-book and paperback format – they don’t have the capacity to translate it into multiple languages, nor to turn it into an audiobook. So the plan is for them to sell on those rights to another publisher, via this UK agency.
It turns out that the London Book Fair, and all its peripheral meetings and networking events, is the perfect platform from which to promote my book to these potential audiobook/translation publishers. The event is massive in scope, international in range, and it’s coming up next week! So the team at Lorella Belli are working hard to promote my books to potential takers in pre-meetings and at the book fair itself. I actually had to make a two-minute promo video talking about the novel for the agent to show to potential publishers.
My title even made it into the UK’s main publishing trade magazine The Bookseller‘s London Book Fair Agent Hotlist feature – a preview of the hot new titles that are being showcased at the fair and up for grabs in terms of available publishing rights. Check out the online feature here (you have to scroll down to find me!) and see the screenshot below for how it looked in print in last week’s The Bookseller.
Of course, I’ll keep you all updated on whether the agency gets any bites from audiobook or translation publishers at the London Book Fair next week!
And if you’re wondering why no book cover image in my photo slot above, just a pic of me – well, that’s because the cover is still with the designers. So watch this space for a cover reveal sometime in April. How exciting!
CJ Connolly 