26/10/2020
As part of BookUp Online, the Australian publishing industry came togetheron Wednesday 21 October to discuss the different opportunities in international rights sales - both what they’d accomplished so far, as well as tips from internationally experienced publishers in how to move forward with rights sales in Asia.
In the first session, Daniel Watts, Managing Director of Thames & Hudson, was joined by Nathan Hollier, the CEO of Melbourne University Publishing and 2018 Copyright Agency Fellow, and Shirley Xie, the VP of Yilin Press for a discussion around International Rights Sales in the Asia Pacific.
Nathan and Shirley shared their experiences in the rapidly growing English book export markets of India, Indonesia and China, focusing on the opportunities for other Australian publishers that they’ve witnessed firsthand. They highlighted the most important book fairs to visit in each market, discussed the importance of finding fitting publishing partners for markets often quite different to our own, and explored the difference in translation approaches between countries, Shirley and Nathan provide the perfect insider information for anyone looking to expand their publishing internationally.
For further insights into the markets of India, Indonesia and Malaysia then Nathan’s recently published Copyright Fellowship report is a must-read.
The second session saw an overview of recent research into the International Rights Sales of Australian Books with Wenona Byrne, Australia Council’s Director of Literature, joined by Paul Crosby and Jan Zwar of Macquarie University.
The Macquarie University research, funded by the Copyright Agency and Australia Council, looked into the rights sales of Australian publishers into international markets between 2008-2018. Their interim results show not only the most effective conduits for developing rights sales relationships, estimates of how much money rights sales have made for the industry as a whole, and the most popular language markets, but also that 96% of respondents believed that they had been successful in selling the international rights to Australian books.
If you’re keen to find out more about where this confidence comes from, how to build on it, or how your own international ventures stack up, Paul and Jan break down their data in this easy to understand presentation.
Both of these discussions are now available to view by members on the APA website:
These events as part of BookUp Online have been made possible by the
Copyright Agency Cultural Fund, and BookUp will return in April 2021 with plans for both an in-person and online conference ahead of Sydney Writers Festival.
More about BookUp Online:
Read more about the other BookUp Online sessions: