Publishers Argue Over Cross-Cultural Contracts 

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 9/18/2007 2:00:00 AM

The title of the panel may have drawn internationally minded publishing people hoping to learn more about securing the rights to foreign works—but thanks to some heated bickering led largely by Gallimard rights director Anne-Solange Noble, the discussion mainly focused on the frustrations and misunderstandings involved in contracts relating to publishing translated works.

As part of an Editors Exchange organized by the French-American Foundation and the German Book Office, the panel From Contact to Contract: Acquiring Foreign Titles presented a colorful bunch of international publishing folk: Alessandra Bastagli, senior editor at Palgrave-MacMillan; Peter Mayer, publisher of Overlook Press (pictured at right); Lauren Wein, senior editor and former rights director at Grove/Atlantic; Gesche Wendebourg, foreign rights director at Random House Germany; and the aforementioned Noble (pictured center). Markus Hoffmann, foreign rights manager and agent at Regal Literary (pictured at left), moderated the panel.

Although Hoffmann’s introductory question asked panelists to describe a particularly frustrating or exhilarating experience regarding the sale or purchase of foreign rights, the conversation quickly changed gears. "Sometimes there’s a missing link," Noble said, referring to the communication between the person selling the rights to publish a book, and the contracts person at the house that is buying. That difficulty in communication, combined with the length of time it often takes to complete a contract for a foreign work with an American publisher, frustrates her. "I’m not a law person; I’m a literary person," she said. Yet Noble said she is frequently put in a position of negotiating with a contracts person at another house who often has no knowledge of the book in question. Editors must tell the contracts people why they want to purchase a particular book, she said, suggesting editors take their own contracts people out for a glass of wine or lunch to befriend them.
 
Wein, of Grove/Atlantic, countered that Noble was "angry about bureaucracy" but that at her house, which is small compared to Gallimard, negotiations don’t usually take long. "I don’t think you can indict America," Wein said. "You’re seeing us as a culture of resistance, but we’re trying to work together."

Mayer tried to resolve the issue by saying, "Most people in contracts are not passionate about books." But before Noble could counter, Hoffmann stepped in and announced time was up.