BFLA Open Week: Tax Forms

Written by Tabitha Topping

For any author it’s obviously incredibly exciting when a translation rights deal is done, however there is an aspect of these sort of deals that is rarely discussed… tax forms.

For the uninitiated, many countries have double taxation agreements with one another which means if a resident of one country is expecting income from another and they have the relevant documentation, they can avoid paying tax twice. Sounds simple, right? You’d be surprised…

At the beginning of each calendar year we have to assess which of our clients are most likely to receive translation rights income and from where. Are we in the middle of negotiating a Spanish deal for Author A? Has Author B been selling well in France, and are we expecting a sizeable royalty payment for them? Often it can be difficult to predict, but once we have a list (and obviously this list is not comprehensive – for example, we often make translation rights deals later in the year we were not expecting to in January), we can then send the relevant instructions to the relevant clients.

These differ from country to country. Some countries have specific forms that need to be filled out by the author and then stamped by their tax authority, while a simple certificate of residence will suffice for others.

We always advise that authors apply for tax forms as soon as they can. It can take months for tax forms to be returned to clients and publishers cannot make payment without them. Furthermore, tax forms may only be used for the year they are issued (Germany is the sole exception to this) so if an author’s form only arrives in November and misses the publisher’s last pay run of the year, the author will have to start the process all over again in January. This often means that large swathes of income is held up, which can be enormously frustrating for publishers and authors alike.

As an agency we are legally not allowed to complete tax forms on behalf of our clients, so our role is to mediate between client and publisher/co-agent. We share the relevant documentation with our clients and then send periodic reminders to them about completing the forms in good time.

Authors are obviously free to go without the tax forms and subject their income to the full withholding tax (and sometimes a tax form only reduces the tax by such a negligible amount it’s not worth going through the whole arduous process), but given the squeezing of author incomes in recent years we usually recommend that authors apply for tax forms.

So, in essence tax forms are great! They allow authors to keep more of their advance and/or royalties, which usually means that an author can afford to write more – yay! Unfortunately the tax forms process is labor-intensive and time consuming… but as agents we will be there for every step of the journey and do our best to make the process as easy and pain-free as we can. So, if you’re an author and receive an email saying ‘it’s time to apply for your [insert country]’s tax forms’, please don’t panic!

Alan Park’s MAY GOD FORGIVE nominated for France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Policière

Alan Parks has been nominated for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, one of France’s most prestigious awards in Crime Fiction, in the Best Foreign Novel category for his novel MAY GOD FORGIVE – published in France as JOLI MOIS DE MAI, in a translation by Olivier Deparis.

The winners of the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière will be announced in September, with the recipient following in the footsteps of the likes of Dennis Lehane, Ken Bruen, Ian Rankin, and Blake Friedmann’s own Deon Meyer, who won in 2003 for his novel DEAD BEFORE DYING.

This latest shortlisting continues Alan’s exceptional run of acclaim for his books on both sides of the English Channel: last year, he won the Prix Mystère De La Critique for BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, the third book in the Harry McCoy series and, for the second year running, the Prix Rivages des Libraires; closer to home, MAY GOD FORGIVE was awarded Bloody Scotland’s top honour, the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year in 2022.

MAY GOD FORGIVE is the fifth novel in Alan’s Harry McCoy series, all of which are published in France by Editions Payots-Rivages. The sixth McCoy title, TO DIE IN JUNE, was published by Canongate in the UK in June 2023 and in the US from Europa in June 2024. The Harry McCoy series is published further in translation in Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Sweden. Film/TV rights are also under option. Alan’s new series GUNNER, a trilogy of World War II-set thrillers, was recently announced, the first instalment of which will be published in 2025.

Congratulations Alan!

About MAY GOD FORGIVE

Glasgow is a city in mourning. An arson attack has left five dead. Tempers are frayed and sentiments running high.

When three youths are charged the city goes wild. A crowd gathers outside the courthouse but as the police drive the young men to prison, their van is rammed by a truck, and the men are grabbed and bundled into a car. The next day, the body of one of them is dumped in the city centre. A note has been sent to the newspapers: one down, two to go.

Detective Harry McCoy has twenty-four hours to find the kidnapped boys before they all turn up dead, and it is going to mean taking down some of Glasgow's most powerful to do it…

Image: Euan Robertson

About Alan Parks

Alan Parks worked in the music industry for over twenty years before turning to crime writing.

His debut BLOODY JANUARY was shortlisted for the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, FEBRUARY’S SON was nominated for an Edgar Award, BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, the Prix Mystère de la Critique in the foreign fiction category, and was shortlisted for the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel and THE APRIL DEAD was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year. The fifth Harry McCoy book, MAY GOD FORGIVE, was published in April 2022 and won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2022. It was shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and longlisted for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Most recently, TO DIE IN JUNE, the sixth entry in the series, was published by Canongate in 2023. The Harry McCoy series is optioned for television.

Alan was born in Scotland and attended The University of Glasgow where he was awarded a M.A. in Moral Philosophy. He still lives and works in the city as well as spending time in London.

Praise for Alan Parks

‘One of the great Scottish crime writers’ – The Times

‘Tipped to become an enduring classic of tartan noir.’ – Sunday Post

‘Dark and gritty… Gripping.’ – Crime Monthly

‘A brilliant series’ – Sunday Times Crime Club

‘Bloody and brilliant’ – Louise Welsh (on BLOODY JANUARY)

‘Pitch-black Tartan noir: bleak, but with an emotional heart that's hard to ignore.’ – Daily Mail (on FEBRUARY’S SON)

‘Manoeuvering through the mean streets of Glasgow, the morally ambiguous, deeply flawed McCoy makes an ideal antihero.’ – Publishers Weekly (on BOBBY MARCH WILL LIVE FOREVER, Edgar Prize Winner 2022)

‘Altogether one of the best police thrillers of the last few years.’ – Morning Star (on THE APRIL DEAD)

Visit Alan’s website

Follow Alan on Twitter

BFLA Open Week: Translation Rights – Beginnings

Written by James Pusey and Nicole Etherington

So, you’ve hooked an agent, and said agent has just submitted your debut novel to UK and US editors. At what stage does the translation rights department get involved, and in what capacity?

First off, it’s likely that the TR department will have been one of the early readers of your novel – we’re often asked to assess new manuscripts that an agent is about to send out in the UK, in order to offer an opinion about its potential for translation. We’d be looking for comparable titles that have seen success abroad and discussing amongst ourselves as to who we might target, and which markets seem likeliest. Each market has its own trends, periods of boom and bust, but there’s also a diversity of tastes within each one.

If we have a very strong feeling that the novel would be up a particular editor’s street, we might send it to them early, before a UK/US deal has been struck. The reality, however, is that the wheels of acquisition often turn slower than we’d like, and to give the novel the very best chances of success we’ll need some help.

By sharing your manuscript with trusted book scouts and our co-agents (our eyes and ears on the ground in capital cities around the world), we can ensure that the novel is considered by a range of the right editors. Co-operating with third parties in this way offers the novel greater visibility and gets people talking. Publishing remains a ‘people’ industry and fostering positive relationships with these contacts is priceless.

Timing is everything and it’s often the case that we won’t achieve proper lift-off in translation until the book has been sold in the UK. Given the vast amount of time, effort and expense that editing, translating and production entails, it’s important that overseas editors have access to copy-edited and proofread manuscripts, possibly cover art and design, and the boost that UK publication and its attendant publicity can give. This is not to say that it’s impossible to sell a title abroad that doesn’t already have a UK publisher, but it’s the exception that proves the rule.

The greatest joy, and biggest challenge, of our work in rights comes from successfully matching up a book with its perfect overseas editor. The first translation deal we make for a book is always a cause of excitemen, and can have a knock-on effect in other markets.

These are the beginnings, then, but, in fact, our engagement with the novel doesn’t end at this stage, or indeed at all. First publication, second (paperback) publication, reviews, prize listings, strong sales figures in the UK or elsewhere, all provide the opportunity for us to continue attempting to place the novel with suitable overseas partners, giving your novel a second, third, or hopefully twentieth life!

BFLA Open Week: Media Rights – How a Book gets Optioned

Written by Anna Myrmus

Getting your book optioned (and hopefully produced) as a film or television series can often be a process which, from the outside, seems shrouded in mystery, but there are a few key things to note.

Firstly, whether or not your book gets optioned is not always predictable from a publishing perspective. This is partly because film and television trends are often in stark contrast to publishing trends. So, while your book may have been written and edited taking into account the current hits on BookTok and in Waterstone’s, those often do not match up with what’s big on screen. Take, for example, romantasy: while it has had a huge boom in publishing, very few books except the top global bestsellers, who can guarantee a very large audience, will break through into television. 

So, how does the process work? Firstly, Book to Film agents, who are meeting with producers all the time, will assess the screen potential of a book and decide whether to actively submit it widely. To do this, they read the book, and, if they can see screen potential, write a submission letter. This letter is much like the one a book agent writes for publishers; it summarises and sells the book, often comparing it to other recent series or films. Then they’ll compile a list of producers who could be interested, based on recent meetings and market research, before sending it out.

There isn’t always a direct correlation between submitting a book widely and the book being optioned, however. Often a producer who options a book comes directly to the agent and there are several things which can trigger this. It could be a review; for example, we may submit a novel widely for months and get no interest, but then an amazing review in the New York Times pops up and multiple producers read it and now want to option the book. Or, maybe it suddenly becomes a bestseller. But even these moments don’t necessarily mean a book will get optioned; sometimes an obscure book can find its way into the lap of a filmmaker and become a passion project, through no graft on the part of the Book to Film agent. Though none of the above means that a Book to Film agent simply sits and waits for offers to come in.

Another key player in the optioning process is the book scout. A book scout gathers information for their clients (film and television producers). They aim to be across everything that’s happening in publishing, feeding their clients summaries and reports on books that might interest them. So, when submitting to producers, Book to Film agents will also submit to scouts, who will read and assess for their clients. Often one good assessment or recommendation from a scout, can lead to interest from one or two producers.

Once you have interest from one or more producers, the Book to Film agent will ask them for their creative proposal; how they see the adaptation, what kind of writer they would get to adapt it, which channels or platforms they imagine it on, and why they love the book etc. We then feed this proposal back to the author, and, if they want to, set up a meeting between them and the producer, so they can hear more and get a feel for them. If there are multiple producers interested, this can also be a way for the author to decide for or against a producer (for example, if they really don’t gel with the producer as a person). 

We then usually ask all producers interested to make a financial offer. If there is only one producer interested, however, we may ask them to make their offer financial from the outset, in order not to waste an author’s time.  Sometimes, if it’s a very small company interested in a book, we will let them know our minimum expectation, so that we don’t waste time on a lowball offer that we simply could never accept.

It’s at this point that negotiations begin. If there are multiple offers, we may ask all parties to improve their offers, sometimes all on different points, so that, in an ideal world, the author is only deciding on an editorial basis. However, this isn’t always the case, and an author may end up having to choose between a team they really want to work with and a bigger wad of cash. Once the author makes their choice, an agreement is negotiated by the Book to Film agent (which can take months) and a contract is finally signed. 

But what does it being optioned actually mean? Well, the company now has the exclusive right to buy the relevant rights in the book. So, they haven’t actually bought the book, but they’ve bought themselves a window to buy it. Within that window, they may attach a screenwriter and see if they can secure a broadcaster or financier, and then, if all goes well, buy the book. This option can also be extended multiple times so that the producer can buy themselves more time to put together their adaptation or present to buyers. If, in the end, they don’t exercise the option i.e. buy the rights, the author is free to get it optioned elsewhere, and the process starts all over again.

Bookouture snaps up new series from ‘East End Saga Queen’ Jean Fullerton

Bookouture has snapped up the first four novels in a brilliant new World War Two saga series from Jean Fullerton, bestselling author of the East End Ration Book series, seeing her move from Atlantic (Corvus). This exciting new series will follow the wartime lives, loves and heartbreaks of a group of four extraordinary young women, who join the WAAF and are stationed in the East End of London as barrage balloon operators. Publishing Executive Lizzie Brien acquired World English Language rights, including audio, from Kate Burke at the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency.

Jean Fullerton says, ‘I’m so thrilled to be joining Bookouture’s friendly, supportive and dynamic team so watch this space for more heart-felt authentic East End sagas.’

Lizzie Brien says, ‘As soon as I read Jean’s first synopsis, I knew I wanted to work with her to tell the stories of these incredible women. Jean’s saga fiction has such wonderful warmth and heart, and is rooted so deeply in the history of the people and places in the East End of London that she knows and loves so well. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with her on this very special series!’

Kate Burke says, ‘Jean is a legend in the saga genre and a brilliant storyteller. I’m very excited for this new chapter in her publishing.’

 The first in the series (title to be announced soon) will be published in May 2025.

 About Jean Fullerton

Jean was born and bred in the overcrowded streets surrounding London Docks where her family have lived since 1825. Being born within the sound of Bow Bells, she’s a true cockney who grew up in what was then the working-class dockland community in Wapping and Stepney, East London. All her published books are set in the streets and alleyways she roamed as a child.

Jean worked for 30 years as a community nurse in East London, starting as a staff nurse and finishing as a university lecturer in Health Studies at London South Bank University.

 Praise for Jean Fullerton

 ‘The queen of East End sagas’ – Elaine Everest

‘Warmth, humour and characters readers care about are Fullerton’s hallmarks.’ – Peterborough Evening Telegraph

 ‘A brilliant author who is not afraid of the truth’ – Geoffrey Harfield, Historical Novels Society

 Visit Jean’s website.

 Follow Jean on X (previously Twitter) and Instagram.