Let's Talk Publication Territories: World vs World English vs North American

You sold your novel! Hurray!

Now... Where in the world will your book release?

Well, it depends. 

Let's talk publication territories! 

World vs World English vs North American Rights

When your agent sells your book to a traditional publisher, one of the things they'll negotiate is where in the world your publisher is allowed to release the book. 

In US publishing, these rights fall into three basic categories:

World

World English

North American

The rights contained in each type of agreement are pretty self-explanatory, but for the sake of clarity, these mean:

World rights: Your publisher has the right to release your book anywhere in the world and in any language. Now, your US publisher is highly unlikely to translate the book themselves, so they'll sell the translation sub rights to publishers in other countries. Those publishers pay a separate advance (to your US publisher - more on this below) and then handle all the translation, marketing, distribution, etc. for that book in their country. 

World English rights: Similar to World rights, your publisher can release your book in English anywhere in the world they'd like. This time, however, they're not allowed to sell your book for translation. You and your agent have the right to do that instead. (More below on why this is advantageous!)

North American rights: This type of deal only allows your publisher to release your book in English (and sometimes in Spanish, too, so double check your contract) but only within the US, US territories, and Canada.  You and your agent still retain the rights to sell the book separately to the UK, Australia, and for translation into other languages. 
 

 
The Financial Impact of Pub Territories

When selling your novel, there are two types of money to keep in mind:  

1 - Guaranteed money (the initial advance itself) 

2 - Potential money (income that's possible in the future via royalties and things like selling foreign rights, film/tv options, etc. but cannot be guaranteed by anyone)

How you decide to balance those types of money will depend on your current financial situation and your goals for your career. 

Sometimes, it's worth it to give up more of your rights (i.e. sell your publisher World rights) for the guarantee of a higher initial advance.

This was true for me when I sold With All My Haunted Heart. It made more sense given my circumstances and goals to say yes to the $100k advance rather than have the publisher lower that amount in the hopes that the book would make up that difference later on by selling translation rights.

In comparison, my YA debut, These Witches Don't Burn, sold for $20k. The initial offer was $20k for World rights, and since the publisher wasn't willing to increase the advance in a meaningful way, my agent instead negotiated the rights down to North American only.

This worked out great for me. Even though we only sold three translations rights for TWDB, those initial advances came in just shy of $10k. Over the years, that book has gone on to earn an additional $25k in royalties from the Spanish and Polish editions. (Plus another $18k in foreign advances and royalties for the sequel, This Coven Won't Break.) 

Because my agent sold those rights, I got to keep 75% of that $52k. (It's fairly standard when your agent works with a co-agent to sell foreign rights that the percentage the different agents keep totals 20-25%.) 

If, instead, I'd sold World rights, the publisher would have kept 25%, applied the other 75% to my advance, and once I'd earned out, my agent would still (rightfully!) keep 15% of the royalties, so I'd end up taking home $33k of that money rather than $39k. 

But that's only because those books had earned out. If they hadn't earned out, all of that money would have stayed with the publisher. It's possible (especially with larger World rights advances) that your book can sell a bunch of translations but you never see any additional money beyond your initial advance because it doesn't earn out.

When you only sell North American rights to your publisher, the foreign deals your agent secures go to you as soon as they happen -- no matter whether you've earned out from your US publisher or not. 

 
You Do Still Get Paid When Your Pub Sells Translation Rights

As I alluded to above, when you sell World or World English rights, your publisher does still give you some of that money . . . it just goes toward earning back your advance first, so it may not ever actually hit your bank account.

The percentage split between you and your publisher also varies based on the territory. 

Your contract may vary (so read through all the details) but it's fairly common for there to be a 20/80 split on sales to the UK and then a 25/75 split for translation rights (with the author getting the higher percentage in both cases). 

Let's play with some super easy math to illustrate this point. 

Say your publisher paid you $100k for your novel in exchange for World rights. 

Your publisher sells rights to a UK publisher to publish the book in English in the UK for $10k. 

Your publisher gets to keep $2k and then they apply $8k toward your advance. 

Then let's say your publisher sells the book to Poland for $4k (they get $1k, you get $3k applied to earning back your advance) and also sells it to Germany for (and we'll go big this time) $40k. Your pub gets to keep $10k and applies the $30k to your initial advance. 

Finally, let's say all this happened before your book even came out. So at the time of publication, you've already earned back $41k of your $100k advance. 

But if your book doesn't sell enough to make up the additional difference of $59k, you won't get any royalties. That $100k advance is all you see for that book. (Which is still great, by the way! I'm not knocking that advance at all!) 

However, let's say your agent managed to get you a $100k advance for World English rights instead. The UK deal would still filter through your US publisher like above, but of the $44k from Germany and Poland, you get $33k right away, no matter how sales go in the US. 

This is where your personal level of risk tolerance comes in (combined with what the publisher was willing to offer, of course).

There's never a guarantee that your book sells foreign rights. And if you do, that money typically shows up much more slowly--both in terms of when you make those deals and in how long the money takes to arrive once the deal is made.  

Your Book May Still Show Up in Other Countries if You Sell NA Rights

Here's where publishing can get a bit weird.

Let's say you sell your book for North American (NA) rights, but then your agent isn't able to get a UK publisher to buy the book.

Your book may still be available in the UK on release day. It might be available in all sorts of places throughout in English, too.

How does that happen? Enter the world of Export Royalties. 

In your contract, in the section about territories where you've granted the publisher the right to distribute, there will likely be a clause where your US publisher can distribute their version of the book in locations where you have not already secured a separate deal by the time of publication. 

Sometimes, this requires your written permission and confirmation that no other deals in those countries have been made. (Contracts vary - so check yours for specific details!) 

Using These Witches Don't Burn as an example again, even though we sold it for NA rights and didn't ever sell it separately in the UK, the book was available in English in the UK on release day. I also remember getting tagged in posts that the book was available in bookstores in France, too! 

According to my most recent royalty statement for TWDB (which came out in 2019), of the $82k in royalties the book has earned over time, just shy of $10k came from export editions of the book!

Final Thoughts

That's the brief rundown of the different territory options your agent may negotiate when selling your book and how they impact the way you can earn money as an author! 

Happy writing,
Isabel 

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