ABSTRACT
No matter how small a rights department may be initially, the mainstay of any such operation must be a centralized system on which to record the exact status of each project and where it is being offered, to whom and when. It may well be possible for a person handling a very small list to have in
their head the details of where each project is on offer or sold, but this will be of little use if they are away from the office or fall ill before a major book fair. Types of record system vary, but the basic aim should be the same: to
provide quick access to a summary of what is happening on each title in each market (including any restrictions on the rights which may be sold, either territorially, by a limited period of time or by category of rights). It should also provide a summary of all the titles sold or on offer to each rights customer – in effect, a profile of that customer’s areas of interest and buying pattern. The record system may also give details of the percentage of each category of rights income to be paid to the author, either direct or via an agent. If the records are to be kept on a manual system of record cards, this will
involve a double-entry system for data; thus, if a book is submitted to a Danish publisher for consideration for translation, the details of that submission will have to be entered on the record card relating to that title, and on the record card relating to the Danish customer. The title record is essential to provide a concise overview of activities on that book – vital if the author should telephone and ask for a progress report, or enquire about activities on rights in a particular market. The customer profile is invaluable when preparing to meet that customer face to face. Most literary agents and publishers started to introduce computerized
databases for rights transactions in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and these have revolutionized the maintenance and retrieval of data. If linked to a collection of basic letters on file with a mailmerge facility, such a system can transform routine procedures such as sending out proofs, reading copies or electronic files to potential licensees for consideration, chasing for
decisions, following up on overdue contracts and payments, and identifying licences that are due to expire. A rights database could consist of a simple spreadsheet system produced
in-house, but there are a number of specialist systems available, with varying degrees of sophistication in terms of reporting options and bolt-on facilities. In the United Kingdom, a reasonably priced rights record system package (RightsManager) is available from Bradbury Phillips International Ltd (www.bradburyphillips.co.uk); this is perhaps more suited to a small to medium-sized publishing house or agency than to a large academic house. Additional packages are available for permissions management and accounting, with a special accounting package (AgencyManager) for literary agents. An alternative system – which can deal with rights acquisitions as well as sales – is That’s Rights! (www.thatsrights.com); this also offers facilities for royalties management. There is also the Brighteye International Rights Database (www.brighteyeltd.com), which covers the promotion and sales processes, including both coedition and licensing deals and The Rights Manager (www.therightsmanager.co.uk). A number of companies producing larger-scale publishing software solutions include rights as part of their facilities. Focus on Publishing Software offers an integrated publishing and accounting system which includes a rights management module (www.focusservices.co.uk), as do Stison (www.stison.com) and Publishing Technology (www.publishingtechnology.com), whilst the SAP All-in-One Publishers Portfolio includes SAP IPM (Intellectual Property Management). A more expensive alternative covering a broader span of publishing
requirements and connecting related in-house departments might be the Klopotek CR & R (Contracts, Rights and Royalties) system, which offers an integrated package covering contract production (head contracts and licences, with a range of templates held on file which can be customized), rights management and royalty administration for both the original editions and licence arrangements (www.klopotek.com). There is also a rights component in Biblio3, a publishing solutions software programme developed by Virtusales (www.virtusales.com). The rights components in these packages will usually need to be tailored to meet the specific requirements of each publishing house, and will involve substantial investment. Some of the larger houses have either developed their own computerized
systems in-house or have used outside consultants to develop a specially designed system, usually an independent network with a workstation for each member of the department; such systems can also be linked to the main company system for access to up-to-date information on publishing programmes and schedules, publicity material, costings, stock levels and so on. A well-designed computerized system has a considerable advantage over a
manual system in that data on each procedure need be entered only once, and can then be retrieved either by title or by customer. Reports can be run to show negotiations at key stages to facilitate chasing procedures, e.g. for
decisions on options or submissions, agreement on suggested financial terms, the return of contracts, and the remittance of key payments such as an advance or lump sum on which the validity of the contract depends. Another desirable facility is the provision of detailed customer profiles for use at book fairs and other meetings; information can include the names and list the responsibilities of key contacts, brief details of deals already finalized, listings of titles on offer or under negotiation, and details of titles where the customer’s interest has been logged for books not yet published or on offer elsewhere. Complex systems can also provide analyses of rights sold by licence type, time period, language, territory, readership level and subject classification. Standard letters (e.g. submissions, option reminders, etc.) can be run and mailmerged with the customer address base. The question of whether a rights database should also contain full financial information for the complete history of each rights transaction will depend on whether accounting records are to be maintained in the rights department itself (common in smaller companies); in a larger company it may be preferable to design the rights system to record only the receipt of the initial advance or lump sum payment on which the validity of the licence depends, but to allow rights staff access to the database of the section of the royalties department administering licence revenue. Such a link (on a read-only basis) enables rights staff to check whether expected income has been received, and can also assist royalties staff to allocate revenue which may have come in from a licensee without sufficient identification data attached. If the system can run on a laptop, it can easily be transported to book fairs or on sales trips, although the mobility of a system requiring simultaneous access and facilities for on-the-spot data entry by several rights staff at a book fair may be more complex. It is difficult to provide precise guidelines for setting up a computerized
rights database, since the exact requirements may vary considerably according to the needs of the rights department or literary agency. For example, a system for publishers who normally have full control of all rights in their publications will not require a facility for listing out the ownership of each individual rights category, whereas a publisher or literary agent who is authorized to handle only a limited range of rights may well need this facility. A publisher specializing in coedition deals for illustrated books will have very different requirements from an academic publisher who needs to track and link rights deals for successive revised editions of their titles. Those publishers who operate almost entirely on an option basis (i.e. the majority of educational and academic publishers – see Option, multiple submission or auction? later in this chapter) may find a ‘queueing’ facility useful, so that when a number of publishers are interested in acquiring rights in a particular language, the optimum option sequence can be listed and adjusted automatically if the first publisher in line declines the book. Reporting requirements may vary considerably; large publishers may need to report by imprint, by editorial
division or perhaps by series or subject category (e.g. the rights status of all computer titles in a particular market). The exact needs of the rights operation will have to be taken into account
and discussed in great detail with whoever is responsible for designing the system. It is also likely that a number of problems will only emerge during the process of loading real data and testing whether retrieval can be achieved in the required form; provision for this (both in terms of time and cost) should be built into any computerization project. A word of warning: once a rights system has been computerized, the
whole operation will depend on both hardware and software functioning properly at all times. Malfunction of either can result in paralysis of the rights function, with very little possibility of retrieving data for a large list by manual methods for, say, a book fair or sales trip. Data should be backed up at the end of each working day. The likely life of hardware should be taken into account when budgeting for purchasing or leasing, and a full maintenance service for both hardware and software will be crucial. Client publishers should also consider whether they wish the database to be downloadable on to laptops for use by one or more staff at book fairs or on sales trips (see Chapter 8). Some thought should also be given to upgrading the system to provide
more capacity, allow for new reporting requirements, and take into account new operating systems and software as soon as these become available. A decision should also be taken on whether this can be done only by the external provider (with the attendant cost implications) or by the client company itself. Most rights systems are now Windows-based.
