Children’s Book Publishing Companies
How do I get the publishing rights to a children’s book?
The book is out of print. The publishing company is out of business. The author is dead. The book is 65 years old.
I want to reprint the book for profit.
When I say profit I mean everyone would profit. Right now the book is just collecting dust with no chance of being bought or sold except in it’s original printing, which is rare. And which I think is a shame.
You have to contact the author’s heirs for permission to get the reprint rights, and they will want money for the work.
Should the work go public domain in five years you’ll still have to contact them to make sure they did not renew the author’s copyright or trademark the book characters. Conan Doyle’s heirs did that with Sherlock Holmes, I think.
If you plan to self publish, either through a vanity press or places like Lulu or CreateSpace, be aware that most self-pub books don’t sell more than 5-10 copies.
Even a book by a pro author has a huge strike against it for being self-published.
Bookstores won’t stock it, even if it is a pro writer.
You need *distribution* to get into the stores from companies like Ingrams or Baker and Taylor.
http://www.bookmarket.com/distributors.htm
Most of them will not touch a print on demand title or mass print titles with a low print run. Some have a limit requiring you to have 5,000 copies printed. That takes up a lot of storage space and it’s VERY expensive to get them printed and shipped.
Libraries will also not order a book unless it’s got a distributor.
What you can try that might turn a small bit of cash for you is to act as a book packager for the title. But you can ONLY do that AFTER you obtain the reprint rights from the copyright owners.
Here’s what a book packager does:
http://www.underdown.org/packaging.htm
Several of my own publishing deals were done with a packager. He’s essentially a middleman.
At this point I would suggest get the reprint rights first, then start querying publishing houses that print similar books. You’re acting as the dead author’s “agent” by trying to get the book back into print.
This way the publisher foots all the costs and marketing and is able to provide distribution.
Do not query the publisher first to find out if they are interested in your project.
They will–if it’s a good idea–promptly contact the heirs themselves for the reprint rights.
That’s how I lost a deal once and better believe I fired my agent over that one. No details, but he called the publisher before he was supposed to, the moron, and messed it up for everyone.
Do not be surprised if you get the rights and are turned down. If the publisher thinks the book won’t make them money, they just won’t buy it.
However things work out, stay away from PublishAmerica. They are a print mill, not a publisher. No distribution and very dodgy accounting on royalties. Just google their name + “scam” for the horror stories.
Another venue is for you to contact a packager yourself and see if they can’t do the hard part for you, like selling it to a publisher. (Again, secure the reprint rights, first.)
Ones I have personally dealt with are TEKNO Books, (Five Star Press), headed by Martin H. Greenberg.
Tekno Books: Martin Harry Greenberg is a packager for SF/F and occasionally buys from previously unpublished writers operating as Tekno Books. Contact at:
1524 University Avenue, Suite 305
Green Bay, WI 54302
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/26064.Martin_H_Greenberg
http://www.gale.cengage.com/fivestar/index.htm
And Bill Fawcett Associates
http://www.awfulagent.com/fawcett/fawcategory.html
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