The career novelist

Contracts and income

SELLING SUB-RIGHTS
At first it appears that every novel contains a secret source of
wealth: subsidiary rights. Why, then, are so many authors disap-
pointed with their sub-rights revenues? Why is it that agents and
publishers so often seem unable to sell audio rights, or movie
rights?
It is worth taking a look at the complex sub-rights market (not to
explain how to sell each of these rights—that is another whole
book) to spread some information about what makes rights salable
in some cases but not others. I hope that once given a realistic
overview, authors may feel happier.
A few examples follow:
Audio. Books on tape are not exactly a huge business, but to an
early-career author whose income is meager, it is a big deal to get
an extra five thousand dollars for audio rights. So why are they so
tough to sell?
The reality of the audio business is that for the publisher of an
abridged recording, the kind most often seen in bookstores, there
must be a minimum sale of about ten thousand units for the audio
edition to be profitable. Now, since audiocassette sales average
about one-tenth of those for their hardcover parents, that means for
an audio edition of a novel to be feasible the hardcover must sell,
at rock bottom, 75,000 copies. (That number still makes the audio a
gamble, but if the novel has some special appeal then it might be
worth a risk.)
Now, your average first mystery novel is not going to sell any-
where near 75,000 copies; in fact, even 5,000 would be nice. For that
reason, it is usually the best-sellers that get picked for audio.
Having said that, I must also point out that there are exceptions.
Smart audio companies like Brilliance have found out that there can
be a decent market for audios of genre novels, provided that the
purchase price is low and not a lot is spent on celebrity readers or
other fancy production costs.
There is also a small but interesting market for unabridged
audiocassettes; that is, the whole book read on multiple cassettes
with not a word left out. Some of those companies are also willing
to take a chance on novels below best-seller status. Small and