bookcareers.com Live Episode 264 – Careers in Book Publishing Rights with Clare Hodder
In this episode of bookcareers.com Live we speak to Clare Hodder, co-founder of RightsZone, which is a software system to support Rights Teams in publishing, and make their job easier.
Clare talks about her earlier career in book publishing, what rights are, the job titles to look out for and the difference between working for Academic and Trade Publishers in rights. You’ll also discover whether you need language skills to work in book publishing rights. Plus much more.
The link for the audio is below, or if you prefer, you can watch the video here https://youtu.be/I71lTZ4CJmw 
After we finished recording, Clare had some comments to add, but we didn’t have time to re-record. Here are her extra thoughts.
Working in rights is very person centred. Rights are sold by people passionate about books to people who are passionate about books.  Buyers have a lot of choice about who to buy from, so being someone who can build strong, long-term relationships with potential customers is a critical skill, and rights relationships really can be long term, its not uncommon to find that rights people have friends to stay with anywhere in the world, thanks to the connections they have made through their work! I think rights roles suit people who take an interest in what is going on in the world, who are interested to learn more about different cultures, who can think creatively about how stories and information might be presented differently to appeal to different sorts of people.
It is important to be able to think through an opportunity, to be able to evaluate the pros and cons and come to an informed decision – so I think rights suits people who are naturally curious and ask lots of questions, those who can be analytical.
Ultimately like so much of publishing, basic business skills are vital. Selling rights is about making money. Even as a not for profit you have to generate revenue to keep your organisation afloat. So it is important to understand what your overheads are, how to manage a budget, how to negotiate a deal that is going to be profitable for your organisation and will deliver an appropriate return to the authors and creators that you are working for as well. 
Listeners might also find it useful to check out the rights&licensing hub from Publishers Licensing Services which has a working in rights section: https://www.rightsandlicensing.co.uk/working-in-rights/
There are also some free online training courses on the hub that will give a greater understanding of how rights works  https://pls.thinkific.com/
The book Clare mentioned in the episode was The StichWort Curse by Alexandra Dawe.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Clare Hodder can be found on LinkedIN
Rights Zone
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