When I started my career in the self-publishing industry, the year was 2010: the iPad had just made its debut, the Nook was the hot new e-reader, and Kindle Direct Publishing was still called CreateSpace. Quite suddenly, book publishing was no longer confined to the arcane realm of the Big Five. This bred both opportunity—and chaos.
Hundreds of self-publishing services sprung up overnight—some ethical and high-quality, others not so much. Oftentimes, authors were figuring out how to publish effectively in this brave new world right alongside those charging for publishing services.
Over time, however, we all learned what we were doing. Many of the self-publishing services have consolidated, and the indie author community is savvier than ever.
While no two publication journeys are exactly alike, there’s now a general blueprint to follow. Write, edit, design, distribute: it’s a well-worn path with many quality options to shepherd you from manuscript to publication.
I highlight this shift in the self-publishing landscape because while the array of services available to publish your book has been refined over the past ten years, the question of what to actually do after your book has been published still looms large. What does that path look like?
Well, one of the biggest differences I still see between the sales and marketing strategies of independent authors and those of traditional publishers is that very few independent authors are thinking about how to monetize their subsidiary rights.
Traditional publishers, on the other hand—especially the Big Five—are thinking about this long before a book’s publication date.
Let’s back up and first answer the question: What are subsidiary rights? My favorite example to illustrate this is the movie The Martian—the big 2015 blockbuster in which Matt Damon travels to Mars. That story started its life as a self-published book—more specifically a blog, which the author turned into an ebook.
The ebook caught the eye of a small Canadian audiobook company, Podium Publishing, who purchased the audio rights from the author and produced Weir’s work as an audiobook. Soon after, the film rights were optioned by Fox and the print rights were purchased by Penguin Random House.
Subsidiary rights (or sub-rights) are the rights to produce an original work in various other formats, which in addition to audio and film can include foreign rights, book club editions, and even merchandise. When you sign a contract with a traditional publisher, part of that contract typically grants most or all of your book’s sub-rights to the publisher. A cornerstone of the publisher’s sales strategy is to exploit these rights to generate additional sources of revenue from each work they publish.
Now, if you are an independent author, these rights are yours to control—one of the amazing things about independent publishing. The problem? This part of the industry is still very much in the grip of traditional publishers and agents. It can be extraordinarily difficult for an indie author to get their foot in the door.
The anecdote of Andy Weir and The Martian actually follows a very similar path to the indie authors I’ve worked with who have licensed their sub-rights. They published their books on Amazon and had no idea they could license the content into additional formats until they were contacted by a publisher.
In addition to audio, foreign rights or translation rights are a very common first foray into sub-rights licensing for indie authors.
As someone who works with authors to help license their foreign rights, I can’t tell you how many authors have asked me whether an email they received from a publisher in China, or Brazil, or New Zealand asking about rights to their book is legitimate or spam (hint, it’s usually legit).
We know international publishers are hungry for literary works by independent authors, but how do we create more opportunities for the two to connect when access to the foreign rights market is still largely controlled by traditional publishing gatekeepers?
I encourage authors to start thinking about your book’s subsidiary rights and how you might proactively work to license them. Will you get a rights agent? Will you attend an international book fair?
If you are in the process of considering self-publishing companies or hybrid publishers, ask if they have a rights program or any resources to assist with sub-rights licensing. Author demand will help drive more companies to provide resources in an area of the business that is still very difficult to DIY.
Just like in the early days of the self-publishing boom, we need more trustworthy service providers offering authors solutions that break down the barriers of traditional publishing.
This is one of the reasons I co-founded DropCap Marketplace, an ecosystem where rights buyers around the world can find and license literary works from independent authors. And while I would, of course, love for you to check out our site (I admit, I’m a little biased), I do think the bigger picture of author access is vitally important.
The path from manuscript to publication has been paved, but the journey doesn’t end there. The indie publishing community must come together, not only to recognize the value of subsidiary rights but to actively demand the opportunities that can help their stories reach a global audience. Only by providing opportunities for additional revenue streams can we ensure that indie authors continue to thrive and grow in an ever-evolving industry.
