- Instructor
- Juliet Pickering (Blake Friedmann), Lynette Owen (Freelance Copyright and Rights Consultant) &, Diane Spivey (Publishing Rights and Contracts Consultant)
- Course dates
- , , ,
- Location
- Online
- Course duration
- 4 Days
- Application deadlines
- 1 November 2023

Selling Rights
This online short course will be delivered live by the tutors and reading material will be circulated to attendees in advance of the course. As well as presentations and discussions this course will involve two group exercises. Delegates are expected to participate throughout the course and should therefore ensure that their microphone (and ideally video) are working.
The sale of rights is crucial to the activities of literary agencies and publishing houses, and can be a major factor in building an author’s career and maintaining author loyalty. For publishers, the sale of rights can also have a major influence on the overall publishing decision and on their profitability.
Here at the IES we are pleased to announce that we will be hosting this online course aimed at staff handling rights for literary agencies and publishing houses. It will cover the rationale for selling rights as well as the practicalities – checking control of the rights and maintaining an accurate database of submissions and sales, as well as key activities such as researching particular markets, identifying potential licensees and building personal contacts at book fairs and on sales trips.
The course will address a range of different rights categories, from English language deals in the UK and abroad, translation rights, serial rights to newspapers and magazines as well as non-print rights such as radio and audio rights, film and television rights and merchandising. It will cover the rationale for coedition versus licence deals, and offer practical advice on how to achieve the best deal and finalise appropriate licence contracts. The final session will cover electronic publishing and will aim to distinguish between arrangements which are sales channels to market, and those which are true electronic licensing deals.
This online course will consist of 14 teaching hours, divided across 4 days – 4 afternoons – as below:
Dates and times:
Thursday 2nd November, 2-5.30pm
Friday 3rd November, 2-5.30pm
Monday 6th November, 2-5.30pm
Tuesday 7th November, 2-5.30pm
Cost: £325