The Importance of Being Right (about Rights)

Samantha Francis | 07/13/2010 | Digitization, | Export, | Rights

Territorial rights are valuable. You want to use them and you want protect them. Although it may seem as though the line between one territory and another blurs online, it doesn’t. Or at least, it doesn’t have to when publishers are making sure to properly support rights information in their ONIX files.

As we recently learned from Michael Tamblyn, incorrect rights information in a title’s ONIX file can cost publishers significant losses. BookNet Canada’s Meghan MacDonald reported that, in Kobo’s case, bad metadata can lead to lengthy delays and can cause up to ten days worth of missed sales. What’s worse is that incorrect or missing metadata may result in a book not being sold in a territory for which you do hold rights.

Can you afford to lose out on sales? By taking the time to include a maximum of five data elements in your ONIX file, you can avoid hassles and lost income—and protect your territorial rights. At the most basic level, all you need to do is fill out two pieces of information: choose a code to identify the type of rights held and then identify the rights country or territory that the rights apply to.  If you want to get more specific, you can also identify excluded countries or territories.  This information is communicated within the Sales Rights composite in your ONIX file.  Keep in mind that the geographical rights information you attach to an ISBN within your ONIX file only specifies where you are legally able to sell a book, and should not list the rights that are available for sale.

To take full advantage of the rights you do hold for a title make sure your ONIX file is complete.  As ebook sales continue to rise, the accuracy of your ONIX file is increasingly crucial.

The Details:

To identify the type of rights held:
Include the Sales Rights Composite in your ONIX file.
Populate PR.21.1 Sales Rights Type Code within the Sales Rights Composite.
This code can be either 01 (exclusive rights), 02 (non-exclusive rights), or 03 (not for sale) in the countries or territories that follow.

To identify the rights country or territory that the rights apply to:
Populate PR.21.2 Rights Country
If the geographical region is a country, it goes here. Country codes are outlined in ONIX Code List 91, but are always two uppercase letters. For example, CA is Canada.

PR.21.3 Rights Territory can also be used.
If the geographical region is something other than a country, it goes here. Territory codes are outlined in ONIX Code List 49, are always uppercase letters, but the length can vary. For example, CA-NS is Nova Scotia and WORLD is World.

To identify excluded countries or territories:
Include the Not For Sale Composite in your ONIX file.
This composite allows you to identify countries or territories where you do not hold rights, since it may be easier to state exclusions than to state a long list. It uses Rights Country and Rights Territory elements in the same way as above. For example, by using the Not For Sale composite, you can state that you hold World rights, excluding Australia instead of listing every country where you do hold rights.

Putting it all together:
Example:
If I wanted to say that I have exclusive rights to sell title x everywhere in the world except for Australia, it would look like this in my ONIX file:
<SalesRights>
    <SalesRightsType>01</SalesRightsType>
    <RightsTerritory>WORLD</RightsTerritory>
    <NotForSale>
        <RightsCountry>AU</RightsCountry>
    </NotForSale>
</SalesRights>

To read Meghan MacDonald’s blog post about lost sales due to bad metadata, click here.

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BookCamp Halifax

Nic Boshart | 06/15/2010 | Digitization

On the phone a few days before heading out east, I told someone I was heading up two sessions at BookCamp Halifax. They told me that was great, and that I’d be looked at as an expert out there; perhaps implying that a) I wasn’t an expert in Toronto, and b) Halifax doesn’t know about digital publishing.
I’ll agree with the first point—I consider myself a knowledgeable generalist—however, Halifax completely schooled me. 

I’m not going to get into a blow-by-blow of the day and recap every session for you, especially since I missed the (apparently) best session about libraries because I went to the ONIX session like I do EVERYTIME, and even missed that as I was frantically emailing people in Toronto to shut off my work computer which was caught in an endless auto-response loop. But I’ll throw in the gist of that session: Have good ONIX. Go now to the BookNet site and read everything, and if you still don’t believe me, read this article by Mike Shatzkin.

If you still don’t believe me, go work at the car-wash or possibly join an amateur wrestling league, as you’ve clearly got meat for a head.

But! My first session, You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Authors, the Internet, and Self-Publishing From a Publisher’s Perspective was the highlight of my day. I was joined on stage by my publishing partner Robbie MacGregor.

I’ve long had serious problems with self-published authors. Namely their perceived lack of introspection and the attitude that publishing is some game to be played, rather than a career path or a wealth of caring individuals who work for very little money and strive to make the best books they can. They take rejections personally and fervently believe that if only their manuscript were to be released into the world, they would become the next Cormac McCarthy or Margaret Atwood.

It’s been irritating to say the least.

Or I thought it was. Turns out I’m wrong. Self-publishing, already transformed from it’s previous existence as vanity publishing, is obviously growing, but not so obviously exciting.

Unfortunately, BookCamp was the same day as the Writer’s Federation Annual General Meeting.  Since there weren’t a lot of writers in the room, we concentrated on what we thought the role of publishers would be in the future, and where the traditional publishing company fit in this new world of easy publishing. Lulu, Smashwords, Espresso machines – pretty dark and daunting stuff to publishers as it takes away a full third of what we offer, namely creating a book and distribution. Another third, marketing, is already being foisted on authors via online social engagement, booking their own appearances, and general non-caring on the publisher’s part. I’m talking the big houses here. Indies always coddle their authors.*

And that last third? Editorial. Again going the way of the dodo, big houses often don’t want to allocate resources for a substantive edit.* And many an author believes they don’t need an edit, or has had some inexpert friend or family member ‘go over it’ for them. That’s lunacy. Editing is a very, very tough skill. I know your sister did really well in her sociology program at Western, but that doesn’t mean she’s memorized The Chicago Manual of Style.

Also, your father-in-law does crappy watercolour paintings, he’s not a book designer. Neither are you. If you have a book design, hold it up to the screen now. See? That’s terrible. God, what’s with your margins? That photo on the front is blurry. Is that comic sans?

The idea we came up with for Invisible was a loose network of experts. A publishing company based entirely online, revenue-sharing with designers, editors, publishers, etc. Perhaps the company is community driven, and we all read posts and pitches and decide which book we want to work on. We form groups interested in making and selling an awesome science-fiction novel, one of us writes it, one of us edits, one of us stands on a corner and yells “HEY READ THIS BOOK, TORONTO!”

So isn’t this just Richard Nash’s Cursor? Yes. We sort of recreated his project. Sorry, Richard.

Ideally, this eliminates bad books. I see now that my biggest beef with self-publishing, and why I shy away from reading it, is that lots of times self-published writers don’t do their jobs. Writers write. They need to let editors sort out their words, designers make their books look nice, and marketers get their ideas into the world. Let people do their jobs. You can’t publish a good book on your own.

“But Terry Fallis! William P. Young! The Joy of Cooking!” you say.

You’re not those people. Plus imagine if those people had access to a collective network of skilled individuals who could help them now? William Young’s friends actually formed a publishing company to publish him, and did a good job of it. Stephen King’s first four manuscripts were rejected; can you imagine the King Collective? A world-wide network of horror writers, designers, and editors?

More to the point, where are the mid-list self-published authors? Oh yeah, there aren’t any … just breakout surprise bestsellers, because not enough people have the support. And then came the internet…

I still won’t be trolling Smashwords any time soon, but I think the idea has some legs. I’ll be following Cursor closely, and perhaps the next time I get a call from Litty McAuthor, I won’t be so short. Unless he gets in my face; that’s just rude.

*I think a lot of people are very quick to lump all publishers together. Indies are very different from larger houses, and a distinction need always be made. You’re not going to get a huge advance from an indie, but you will get a lot of love and attention.

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Digital Book 2010 at Book Expo America

Tricia McCraney | 06/07/2010 | Digitization

On May 26, I attended Digital Book 2010—a full-day of conference sessions offered by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) at Book Expo America.  There was a great showing of Canadians in the audience as well as several hundred attendees from more than a dozen other countries. 

The focus of the sessions was largely on the ePUB format, a standard for reflowable digital books that is managed by the IDPF.  Progress in ePUB-land includes the release of version 2.01 and the creation of a working group to forge ahead with the development of version 2.1.  Liza Daly of Threepress consulting, who is also an IDPF board member, gave an engaging overview of new capabilities in ePUB for interactivity including animation, video and geolocation.  Plus, an official ePUB logo was unveiled.

Rethink the way people learn.  Digitize your titles.  Enhance.  Improve.

– Peter Balis, Director, Digital Content Sales, John Wiley & Sons

Several new business models were discussed by publishers, distributors and content providers including Harlequin, John Wiley & Sons, Ingram Content Group and Overdrive.  The new agency model for eBook pricing was a hot topic, and the most surprising area of discussion about agency was that it brings questions about tax rates and e-commerce to the surface, at a levle that practically requires publishers to become fluent in tax law.  Apart from agency, panelists offered discussion around the new relationships between authors and readers, and how to promote and sell e-books. 

Focus on the reader.  Make the digital experience better.

– Theresa Horner, Director, Digital Content Sales, BarnesandNoble.com

Digital rights are always an attention-grabbing topic for those of us interested in export-related matters, and the Digital Rights Management (DRM) panel did not disappoint.  Ronald Schild talked about Libreka! – an eBook platform developed jointly by German publishers and booksellers—and it’s success in combating eBook piracy through the use of social DRM.  Libreka! used watermarking on eBooks, and has yet to find a pirated copy in circulation.  You have to wonder if they will be able to make the same claim a year from now.

Digital Book 2010 was a huge success.  We congratulate Michael Smith and the IDPF on the conference and hope to see you there in 2011.

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