International Copyright question: Publishing a translation of an existing Ch

[Guest guest]

Mark,

 

" 1. Who owns the rights to a book? "

 

It entirely depends on the contract signed by the author. In general,

the author is the copyright owner who then " assigns " or transfers the

use of the copyright to the publisher. But again, this entirely

depends on the contract that was signed. In business, you get what you

are able to negotiate. In theory, one can sell a copyright.

 

" Are the rights for a translation purchased or does one have to give a

percentage of the overseas sales to the original publishing house? "

 

Translation rights are owned by the author. Again, most of the time,

these are transferred for use to the publisher in all languages when

the original publishing contract is signed. Then the publisher " sells "

(actually licenses) these writes to other publishers in other

countries. When this happens, the original publisher then pays the

original author a percentage of the sale as stipulated in the original

publishing contract.

 

For instance, when Blue Poppy Press sells the translation rights of

one of our books to a publisher in a foreign country, we and the

author split the proceeds 50/50. Other publishers may handle this

secondary rights sale in other ways.

 

" 2. Do you need the blessings of both the author and the publisher to

publish a work overseas? "

 

No, if all rights, both primary and secondary, have been transferred

to the original publisher (as is usually the case), the publisher can

make the secondary rights sale to a foreign language publisher without

necessarily getting approval from the author or his or her " heirs and

assigns. " However, again it depends on the terms of the original

contract.

 

In terms of Blue Poppy Press, we contact the author to OK the sale.

However, the author only has first right of refusal. If they refuse,

then they must pay us what the sale would have netted us. In that

case, the author now owns the translation rights for that language to

do with whatever he or she is able to do.

 

" If the author is deceased should you make an earnest attempt to

contact the family? "

 

Once again, this depends on the terms of the original contract.

Typical contracts pass on the rights to family members or heirs and

assigns which then exist for 100 years, the normal term of copyright.

Anything older than 100 years is in the public domain and anyone can

do anything they want with it.

 

Be careful here. The original Chinese author may not clearly

understand what rights he or she still own and what ones they have

" sold " to their publisher. I heard a story recently of a Chinese

author who told a foreign language publisher they owned the English

language rights when the publisher says that, no, they own those

rights. Without seeing a copy of the contract, this may be difficult

to determine.

 

" 3. Before going to a foreign (here i refer to the non-chinese)

publisher with a translation project should the translator get all the

green lights himself or is this usually the job of the translator's

publisher? "

 

The publisher usually negotiates this. This is one of the things that

the publisher will take into account when deciding to publish a

translation -- is the cost of the translation rights worth it for the

market they are serving? In terms of English language rights for

Chinese medicine books, anything more than $500-1,000 U.S. for all

translation rights in all languages other than Chinese is probably not

going to be worth it given the small volume of expected sales (from

the perspective of the world of publishing).

 

" 4. Do most translators contact a publisher before beginning a work to

discuss whether the work is marketable? "

 

Certainly this is a good idea. No sense in spending the time and

effort if there's no one interested in publishing the work. The

problem with Chinese is that, once they hear Ying Wen or Mei Guo, they

think Golden Mountain, i.e., lots of money. However, in terms of the

Chinese medicine market, that is absolutely not the case. So they

often ask unreasonable prices. This is why Blue Poppy Press rarely

publishes books by contemporary Chinese living in the PRC. They and

their publishers just don't understand our market and what is and is

not reasonable.

 

As for most of the books you've collected, translating them in toto

into English and seeing them published is not so easy or even likely

since China signed onto the International Copyright Convention in the

late 80s or early 90s. What I strongly suggest is that you take bits

and pieces from numerous sources and compile them into a " new work. "

Then you do not have to pay rights fees as long as you have not taken

too much from a single source, have not copied to much of the original

authors actual words as opposed to simply conveying their information

in your own words, and have added other materials yourself or from

other sources. This is referred to as the Doctrine of Fair Use. It is

also called scholarship.

 

For more information on publishing law beyond the U.S. Copyright

Office website referred to you by another respondent, I suggest you

get a copy of Kirshch's Guide to the Book Contract and Kirsch's

Handbook of Publishing Law. However, these books deal with

U.S.-European publishing laws and norms. Goodness knows what Chinese

copyright and publishing law is like. You can also always ask me any

questions, since I'm more than passing knowledgable about all this.

I've handled all of Blue Poppy Press's book contracts for more than 20

years, though I no longer handle our foreign language rights sales.

 

Bob

Blue Poppy Press