The U.K.-based Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) is working with literary agency Toby Mundy Associates (TMA) to have eligible members’ translation and other subsidiary rights sold by TMA. As part of the arrangement, TMA will create a rights catalog of self-published members’ books, representing those titles in the rights centers at London Book Fair (LBF) and Frankfurt Book Fair (FBM).
This is an interesting development in self-published work and well worth watching. The criteria for representation in this arrangement, according to ALLi’s news release, are these: “The list will concentrate on fiction and is open to professional members of ALLi who can demonstrate that their sales are stable, or increasing, and have achieved average sales with their three most recent titles of 50,000+; or a stand-alone title published within the previous 12 months that has sold over 75,000 copies.”
Those are substantial unit-sales figures, and ALLi members who can produce those numbers can choose to opt in to the program—which will mean that Mundy’s agency will then act for them in any negotiations that result from their having their titles listed with the service. This effort lies alongside ALLi’s work with Tom Chalmers’s IPR License and makes good sense in the context of many independent authors’ interest in international marketing efforts. (See also ALLi’s Going Global campaign.)
We’ve noticed that publishing’s third major trade show of the year, BookExpo America (BEA, May 11–14, 2016, in Chicago) is not part of ALLi’s and TMA’s plan. The map of member locations on the ALLi homepage shows 44 percent of membership in North America and 47 percent in Europe, so we hope to eventually see the rights catalog presented at the influential rights center at BEA, perhaps with the help of an affiliate agency arrangement. (The same edition of the catalog could serve for both LBF in mid-April and BEA in mid-May.)
Bottom line: Although unfortunately limited to Europe in its tradeshow scope for the moment, the rights catalog-and-representation effort from ALLi looks like a smart move, especially as it sets a relatively high bar for participation, and this might reassure rights agents that the titles represented have some demonstrated market viability. It will be interesting to see whether it tends to complement or compete with the IPR License connection.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
