THE ACQUISITIONS PROCESS

Every publishing house has its own process for acquisitions, so please don’t apply this universally, but this will give you a sense of how the process works at one house.

At Sourcebooks, we meet weekly to discuss potential projects and decide which ones to pursue. All the acquiring editors, our editorial director and our publisher attend. At some houses, salespeople, publicists and marketing staff are also included in the meeting. Our job as editors is to know what the audience is for every book we acquire, and to give our sales, marketing and PR staff all the ammunition to sell the book. We only acquire projects we believe we can make successful—we don’t do any “throw it against the wall and see if it sticks” publishing.

Prior to the meeting, I have a process for reviewing submissions that involves partial or full reads by me, my editorial administrative assistant, and sometimes outside readers. I review every submission, and I read every query, cover letter, synopsis and enough of the manuscript to evaluate the writing. I read until I’m clear that it’s something I believe we should publish, or until I’m clear that I don’t think it will work.

If a project is something I think we should acquire, I submit it for the meeting ahead of time to get it onto the agenda. At a minimum, I send in synopsis and 20 to 50 pages of the manuscript, along with author’s sales history, awards, and any other information that may be relevant to the subgenre, the category, competing or comparable titles, or previous titles by the author.

All projects must be entered into a database that includes the author’s name, who the agent is (if applicable), the author’s publishing and sales history, the category the book will be published in, the subgenre, who the editor is, and a brief pitch from the editor. The more lively and exciting I can make this short pitch, the better. Very useful for this field is the pitch the author sends me in their cover letter or other submission materials, especially if the author’s voice comes through in their pitch. This is also where I’ll comment on my vision for publication—how many books I want to offer on, which season I want to publish in, what the format and price point should be, and if it’s multiple books, at what interval subsequent books could or should be published. Sometimes I’ll note if I believe the title should change, and sometimes I’ll propose title alternatives or a series title.

Each editor assembles all our material prior to the editorial meeting. Since my office is in Connecticut and the meeting takes place in Naperville, IL, I submit my materials electronically and they are printed out and placed with all the other submissions hours and sometimes days before the meeting. Editors review each other’s submissions so we’re all prepared for discussion. Editors are very supportive of each other, but we never want a colleague to acquire something that isn’t going to be successful for us, so we’re very tough on each other too. We figure that we better ask the tough questions that the buyers are going to ask. There’s nothing worse for our sales reps than to be caught by surprise. So while we extoll a project’s virtues, we also probe its weaknesses and begin to strategize how we might overcome them.

During the discussion, we may look at sales history of comparable books on our own list, or we may pull Bookscan numbers, take a look at an author’s website, or look at competing books on online retailers. In addition to talking about the specific project/s in front of us, we also talk about the author’s career, the category, the marketplace, any updates on what’s happening in the industry, and general sharing of information amongst the editors.

A project can go in one of three directions:

*Decline. We always discuss why we are declining a project, so the editor will be able to tell the author (and/or agent) why we’re turning something down. The next step is a rejection letter/email or phone call (usually phone call only when there’s an agent involved).

*Hold for Further Info or Research. Sometimes we don’t want to make an immediate decision. We may be awaiting release of another book by the author, or we may need a rewrite of the sample chapters, or to come up with a better title, or to research the category more thoroughly or want to position the book more powerfully, or the editor simply needs to go back and marshal a better case for why we should publish. I have had many projects successfully move through this step to acquisition, and it always impresses me mightily when an author works hard to move their book forward from this place.

*Yes. Great excitement on the part of the editor! Now we discuss what the offer should be—advance, royalties, our vision for publication and any impediments to success that we anticipate at this stage. The next step is “the call” and believe me when I tell you that this is my favorite part of my job!

From there we move into the negotiation process, which is a topic for another day!

I look forward to answering all your questions about our acquisitions process!

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This is your chance to grill Deb about how manuscript purchase decisions are made. What have you always wanted to know about book acquisitions?

Be sure to stop by Wednesday when radio personality Bruce Allen will illustrate differences in gender communication through dialogue. Sure to be enlightening!

Deb’s Bio:

Deb Werksman has been an acquiring editor and editorial manager for Sourcebooks for the past twelve years, before which she had her own publishing company. She is the country’s foremost editor of Jane Austen sequels, and acquires single title romance in all subgenres, as well as historical and women’s fiction. Sourcebooks is the country’s largest woman-owned independent publishing house, and we’re known for our sales and marketing, as well as our focus on building authors’ careers.

Welcome, Holly.

Kelsey: What are the primary parts of a publishing contract?

Holly: Definition of the work (how many books and what those books are), rights granted (territory and subsidiary), operating instructions (who delivers what to whom, and when, and what happens next), advance (including payout), royalties, accounting details (when and how will you be paid), warranties and indemnities, option, and provisions for termination.

Kelsey: What items are generally negotiable for a debut author? How does this change for an established author?

Holly: There are no hard and fast rules on this—there isn’t one form for debuts and another for established authors. It’s true that the more successful you are, the more demonstrated value you’re bringing to the house and therefore you have more leverage when it comes to certain terms. That said, I’ve seen plenty of contracts for debut authors that were every bit as good as ones for midcareer authors. Plus in many instances the special modifications that come into play for A-listers (specific dates and mode of travel for promotional appearances, certain kinds of bestseller incentives, etc.) simply don’t apply for the debut novelist.

Kelsey: If an author writes recurring characters, does the publishing house own all the characters in a particular book?  In other words, if the author changes houses, can he/she use characters from a previous book? 

Holly: There are certain very specific circumstances & publishers where character rights would be specifically included as part of the deal but in most cases for general single-title trade contracts, this is not something we’d give up.

In practice, it is very difficult to move a series, but contractually you always want to have the freedom to do so.

Kelsey: Do authors sign new contracts with each book deal or is there normally a contract clause about subsequent books?

Holly: The number of books per contracts varies—you could have a one book deal, two book deal, or three or more. But more isn’t always better if it means being locked in to the same terms—if your series takes off in book 2, for example, it’s possible you could’ve gotten better terms on Book 3 if it were the first book of a new contract rather than the last book of the first contract. It’s different every time. (Are you seeing a theme here?) But even if the new deal is just the book that was under option in the first deal, a new contract will be generated and there will be room for some renegotiation.

Kelsey: Do most publishers ask for first right of refusal?

Holly: Most publishers ask for an option—the first look at the next work (and an agent can narrow the definition of what’s considered next work, the amount of material that’s submitted, the time frame the publisher has to consider the work, etc.). After you submit your next work according to the terms, if you and the publisher can’t come to terms you’re free to look elsewhere.

Kelsey: Do you always include foreign rights in contracts?

Holly: They’re always mentioned, to clarify who controls them, author or publisher. The territory—North American, World English, and World are the three most common alternatives—is one of the basic deal points and will be negotiated with the editor before contracts are drafted. Deciding what territory to grant depends on many outside factors: the level of competition for the project here, the international marketability of the work, the terms of the publisher’s offer, the agent’s success in placing similar projects internationally, even the publisher’s ability to successfully exercise the rights it retains. There are a ton of variables and no one right answer.

Kelsey: What areas of the contract can an agent normally negotiate to the benefit of the author?

Holly: Publishers are willing to at least hear any reasonable, well-thought-out request from a reputable agent. It doesn’t mean you’ll always get exactly the answer you were hoping, but a good agent will have an open line of communication with both the editor and the contracts department, and know what terms are worth spending time on and on which ones the boilerplate will suffice. Agents will specifically negotiate the deal points with the editor: territory, # of books, advance, payout, basic royalties, option, etc.; then when the contract arrives, we’ll verify all those elements as well as vetting the remaining contract language (all the tricky stuff like high-discount royalties and out-of-print reversions and ensuring any breach language includes the right to cure). I find it’s best to discuss any potentially contentious deal points in the negotiation stage, when there’s more room to find a middle ground.

Kelsey: Do your clients normally see all iterations of a contract you’re negotiating, or do you wait to discuss the contract with the author until after you have most of the details worked out?

Holly: In most instances I’ll fully negotiate the contract then send to the client and answer any and all of their questions.

For our RU readers, Holly will try to stop by today to answer questions. If she doesn’t drop in, we’ll assume she’s busy negotiating a wonderful contract for one of her authors!

Be sure to drop by on Monday when mystery author Hank Phillippi Ryan will teach us about using TV techniques to write a killer novel – not to be missed!

Holly’s Bio:

Holly Root is a literary agent who began her publishing career as an editor in Nashville, TN before coming to New York and joining the William Morris Agency’s agent trainee program. She then moved to Trident Media Group, where she sold audio right for the agency’s clients, before joining The Waxman Literary Agency in 2007 and starting her own list. She is actively seeking commercial fiction, including mystery, romance, YA, and women’s fiction, as well as nonfiction projects, with particular areas of interest in lifestyle & relationship projects, narrative nonfiction of all sorts, and pop culture.