Excurso: percepciones sobre stalking entre estudiantes universitarios

No matter how small a rights department may be initially, the mainstay of any such operation must be a centralized system on which to record the exact status of each project and where it is being offered.

It may well be possible for a person handling a very small list to have in their head the details of where each project is on offer or sold, but this will be of little use if they are away from the office or fall ill before a major book fair.

Types of record system vary, but the basic aim should be the same: to provide quick access to a summary of what is happening on each title in each market (including any restrictions on the rights which may be sold, either territorially, by a limited period of time or by category of rights). It should also provide a summary of all the titles sold or on offer to each rights customer – in effect, a profile of that customer’s areas of interest and buying pattern. The record system may also give details of the percentage of rights income to be paid to the author or to the author via an agent.

If the records are to be kept on a manual system of record cards, this will involve a double-entry system for data; thus, if a book is submitted to a Danish publisher for consideration for translation, the details of that submission will have to be entered on the record card relating to that title, and on the record card relating to the Danish customer. The title record is essential to provide a concise overview of activities on that book – vital if the author should tele-phone and ask for a progress report, or enquire about activities on rights in a particular market. The customer profile is invaluable when preparing to meet that customer face to face.

Most literary agents and publishers have introduced computerized record systems of rights transactions, and these have revolutionized the maintenance and retrieval of data. If linked to a collection of basic letters on file with a mailmerge facility, such a system can transform routine procedures such as sending out reading copies for consideration, chasing for decisions, following 2

up on overdue contracts and payments, and identifying licences that are due to expire. In the United Kingdom, a reasonably priced rights record system package is available from Bradbury Phillips International Ltd (www.bradbury phillips.co.uk); this is perhaps more suited to a small- to medium-sized publish-ing house or agency than to a large academic house. Additional packages are available for royalty accounting and permissions management. An alterna-tive system – which can deal with rights acquisitions as well as sales – is That’s Rights! (www.thatsrights.com); this also offers facilities for royalties management.

A more expensive alternative covering a broader span of publishing require-ments and connecting related in-house departrequire-ments might be the Klopotek CR & R (Contracts, Rights and Royalties) system which offers an integrated package covering contract production (head contracts and licences, with a range of templates held on file which can be customized), rights manage-ment and royalty administration for both the original editions and licence arrangements (www.klopotek.com).

Some of the larger houses have either developed their own computerized systems in-house, or they have used outside consultants to develop a specially designed system, usually an independent network with a workstation for each member of the department; such systems can also be linked to the main company system for access to up-to-date information on publishing programmes and schedules, costings and stock levels, and so on.

A well-designed computerized system has a considerable advantage over a manual system in that data on each procedure need be entered only once, and it can then be retrieved either by title or by customer. Reports can be run to show negotiations at key stages to facilitate chasing procedures, e.g. for deci-sions on options or submisdeci-sions, agreement on suggested financial terms, the return of contracts, and the remittance of key payments such as an advance or lump sum on which the validity of the contract depends. The more elab-orate systems can provide detailed customer profiles for use at book fairs and other meetings; information can include the names and list the responsibilities of key contacts, brief details of deals already finalized, listings of titles on offer or under negotiation, and details of titles where the customer’s interest has been logged for books not yet published or on offer elsewhere. Complex systems can also provide analyses of rights sold by time period, language, territory, readership level and subject classification. Standard letters (e.g. submissions, option reminders, etc.) can be run and mailmerged with the customer address base. The question of whether a rights database should also contain full finan-cial information on rights transactions will depend on whether accounting records are to be maintained in the rights department itself (common in smaller companies); in a larger company it may be preferable to design the rights system to link up with the database of the section of the royalties department admin-istering licence revenue. Such a link (on a read-only basis) enables rights staff to check whether expected income has been received, and can also assist 58 Tackling the task: essentials

royalties staff to allocate revenue which may have come in from a licensee without sufficient identification data.

If the system can run on a laptop, it can easily be transported to book fairs or on sales trips, although the mobility of a system requiring simultaneous access and facilities for on-the-spot data entry by several rights staff at a book fair may be more complex.

It is difficult to provide precise guidelines for setting up a computerized rights database, since the exact requirements may vary considerably according to the needs of the rights department or literary agency. For example, a system for publishers who normally have full control of all rights in their publications will not require a facility for listing out the ownership of each individual rights category, whereas a publisher or literary agent who is authorized to handle only a limited range of rights may well need this facility. Those publishers who operate almost entirely on an option basis (i.e. the majority of educa-tional and academic publishers) may find a ‘queueing’ facility useful, so that when a number of publishers are interested in acquiring rights in a particular language, the optimum option sequence can be listed and adjusted automatic-ally if the first publisher in line declines the book. Reporting requirements may vary considerably; large publishers may need to report by imprint, by editorial division or perhaps by series or subject category (e.g. the rights status of all computer titles in a particular market).

The exact needs of the rights operation will have to be taken into account and discussed in great detail with whoever is responsible for designing the system. It is also likely that a number of problems will only emerge during the process of loading real data and testing whether retrieval can be achieved in the required form; provision for this (both in terms of time and cost) should be built into any computerization project.

A word of warning: once a rights system has been computerized, the whole operation will depend on both hardware and software functioning properly at all times. Malfunction of either can result in paralysis of the rights function, with very little possibility of retrieving data for a large list by manual methods for, say, a book fair or sales trip. Data should be backed up at the end of each working day. The likely life of hardware should be taken into account when budgeting for purchasing or leasing, and a full maintenance service for both hardware and software will be crucial. Client publishers should also consider whether they wish the database to be downloadable on to laptops for use by one or more staff at book fairs or on sales trips (see Chapter 8).

Some thought should also be given to upgrading the system to provide more capacity, allow for new reporting requirements, and take into account new operating systems and software as soon as these become available. A decision should also be taken on whether this can only be done by the external provider (with the attendant cost implications) or by the client company itself. Most rights systems are now Windows based.

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STAFFING

In a small company, the rights operation may consist of only one person, perhaps not working on rights full time, who may also be responsible for their own keyboarding and clerical work. At the next stage, it might consist of two people, one to undertake the rights selling, and an assistant who may have a partly secretarial role but who may also handle routine tasks such as sending out reading copies and maintaining record systems. For a larger staff it will be necessary to decide on the best division of labour.

Some rights departments and agencies choose to divide the selling by geo-graphical area, giving each person a designated sales territory. This can work well when there are strong linguists in the department, since they can then operate in areas where their language skills are appropriate. It is also a method commonly used by publishers who specialize in the coproduction of editions of illustrated books for overseas publishers, since such customers usually merit regular sales visits outside the major international book fairs. This method of organization has the advantage that the staff concerned come to know their own markets very well. A disadvantage may be that all the staff have to be familiar with the entire list, and that no one person has an immediate overview of the rights situation on a particular book worldwide.

Another method of dividing the workload is by function, with one member of staff specializing in translation rights, another in book club rights, another in serial rights, and so on. This approach can obviously be justified only if the list handled has adequate work in each area to justify the full time of each person.

Yet another method, particularly in operations where the list is very large, divides the workload by subject category, level or perhaps by imprint in the case of publishing groups where each imprint has a distinct identity. This has the advantage that staff are not required to operate across a huge list without adequate time to get to know a broad range of different types of customer well.

They can concentrate on particular areas of the list in detail, but handle the rights in those titles worldwide and thus have an overview of each title without having to consult colleagues.

All these methods have both advantages and disadvantages; as a rights operation expands, it is wise to review the structure and division of the work-load regularly to achieve maximum efficiency.