Selling rights overseas is an exciting process. Writers yearn for that extra exposure and live in the hope that sales into one territory may hopefully lead to others elsewhere. It doesn’t always happen of course especially in the financial age we currently live in. However if you write rural literature in Australia you can pretty much be assured that your title will eventually sell into Germany. Why the Germans love our bush based novels is a mystery to most, so I sent off an email to a German friend of mine to query her on the subject.
‘Australia is so different Nicole. You have space and energy and sights we Germans only dream about and your countryside is so different to ours. To us you are a fresh, young, bold country untainted by past history and many of your (authors) works carry a sense of freedom for us.’
It’s an interesting take on why the Germans love our rural literature.
If the rights to a book are sold to an overseas ‘territory’ usually it’s a fairly quiet procedure. However I had a slightly different experience. I was fortunate in 2010 with both The Bark Cutters & A Changing Land ending up at auction with two competing publishing houses vying for the rights to publish the works in Germany. This is pretty much like an art auction for example however usually the bidding is done over the telephone or via email. Occassionally a ‘mega’ book will actually rate Sotheby’s type attention with competing bidders in a room however I still had the thrill of rushing back and forth to my laptop during the night as the bids came through. With the communications coming from Germany to the Random House Rights Manager in Australia and then onto my literary agent before finally being forwarded to me it was quite a convoluted process. Finally everyone went to bed. By morning both books were sold. A fortnight later The Bark Cutters was purchased again in a separate deal to Germany’s leading book club to be released as a special edition hardback. If you love books like me you can imagine the squeal that came from my lips when I heard about that one.
When it comes to translation I’m always amazed at the change in title. I’ve looked at other author’s German translations over the years and wondered at the marketing discussions behind the title changes. I’m pretty sure there are probably about ten or so people sitting around a polished wooden table drinking expresso at any of the publishing houses in Germany, their eyes glazing over at yet another Australian novel which has to be re-titled for their German readers. The Bark Cutters will be released in Germany this September entitled, ‘Wide Land of Desire’. It’s actually being pitched as a romance which is interesting because it is isn’t considered to be one in Australia… maybe it has something to do with the translation.
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Hi Nicole,
Thanks for this fascinating post. I’ve always been puzzled about why Germany is such a keen market for Aussie rural lit. Congratulations on your success over there. BTW. Fantastic stuff!
Well done, Nicole. I’ll stay with the English version, though, even if I speak German;
Love the book cover of the German version. Very dreamily romantic and quite Australian – reddish brown of the bush and blue from the never ending skies;
I find that Australian authors are more likely to be translated into German than into French. Go try find a book by Di Morrissey, for instance. Funnily enough Tamara McKinley gor her books translated.
Hi Jennifer, yes it’s been a bit of a connundrum for me as well so it’s interesting to get their perspective. Thanks for the wishes. Nicole
Yes, it’s a nice soft looking cover Brigitte, a bit different to the Australian versions. And you’re right about France. They don’t pick up alot of our books unfortunately. When I asked RHs Rights Manager about France she said that there was a tendency for France to disregard a work if it was picked up by Germany first. Don’t know what’s going on there…
My first book also went to an auction Nicole but i didn’t hear about it until after lol. But my second went back to Random House. I guess they gave them first option. Id love to get more involved but to afraid to ask questions in case I do something wrong lol. Thank god the Germans love our rural books. Just need other countries to jump on board. X
It’s an exciting process Fee, but like you I agree, it would be nice if a few other countries got on board the Rural Lit train. I think they’d be pleasantly suprised with the results if they took the plunge.