2004- 10-02 published wide angle

Author: Rebecca

Copyright introduction "A single spark can start a prairie fire"

More than a decade ago, "copyright trade" was definitely a strange concept in China. It seems only natural that foreign works are brought in and translated and published. Because China only formally promulgated the Copyright Law in the early 1990s and acceded to two international copyright conventions. After that, with the strengthening of copyright protection in China, the book copyright trade between Chinese publishing houses and foreign publishing companies grew from scratch and gradually warmed up. Before 1995, there were only a few statistical books copyright trade projects. 1995- 1998 according to the statistics of the national copyright administration, the total number of books imported by national publishing houses in the past four years was 14500. By 2002, the number of books imported in that year reached10235; In 2003, despite the impact of SARS, the number of books imported into China reached nearly 10,000. From the perspective of provinces and cities that carry out copyright trade, except Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Qingdao Overseas, all provincial and municipal publishing houses in China have records of carrying out copyright trade. The fire of copyright trade is getting stronger and stronger. At the same time, some problems brought by its rapid development must also attract our attention.

Abide by copyright trade rules and establish your own brand image. In today's world, European and American culture is still the mainstream culture. In order to optimize their own publishing structure, China's publishing houses actively engage in copyright trade and adopt "takenism", which is understandable in itself. However, publishing houses must not take short-term actions for immediate economic benefits. For example, publishing without legal authorization, or publishing a collection of works with luck, or cheating on print runs without paying royalties. Who knows, these behaviors can gain temporary benefits, but they are smashing their own brands. The publishing circles at home and abroad are actually small. When foreign publishers or their agents choose partners, your attitude of not respecting copyright in the past may have been heard by them and included in their "blacklist". Last year, the author came across a real case. In recent years, a local publishing house has signed a contract with British Pearson Publishing Group to publish more than 20 books on economic management. Last year, the agency suddenly decided to adjust its publishing direction and proposed to terminate all contracts signed with Pearson. Pearson angrily declared that this was the most serious breach of contract they had never encountered. They will tell their British counterparts about this, and no one wants to do copyright transactions with this Chinese publishing house in the future. Therefore, in the process of introducing copyright, Chinese publishing houses should put copyright trade on a long-term virtuous circle with excellent book quality and their own image of honesty. The so-called "word of mouth", copyright trade especially depends on the accumulation of brands and long-term word of mouth. Most reputable publishing houses and copyright agents abroad attach great importance to old customers, and the level of edition tax rate is not the only standard, so we must pay attention to maintaining long-term cooperative relations with our partners.

What needs to be pointed out here is that in the process of contract performance, non-performance and improper performance of obligations stipulated in the contract belong to breach of contract. Foreign countries attach great importance to contracts. Large companies have their own format text, and small companies will adopt the contract text provided by agents. The author once represented an American writer. On the basis of the conventional copyright authorization contract we provided, she asked domestic lawyers to increase the contract to more than ten pages. Once signed, the publishing house must strictly fulfill all the obligations stipulated in the contract. For example, the time to pay royalties in advance, the time to publish, the time to submit sales reports, the time to send sample books and so on. Even a small obligation, as long as it is stipulated in the contract, must be fulfilled, otherwise it will not only cause breach of contract, but also affect the reputation and external image of the publishing house.

In the process of contract execution, besides the standard problem, there are some things that are easily overlooked by everyone. Examples are as follows:

1. The original cover design should not be used casually, and the opinions of foreign rights holders should be sought first.

2. At present, a few foreign publishing companies provide indefinite contracts, that is, the market life of the foreign version of the authorized work is the authorization period. In this case, once the latest version of the book is available abroad, it can be re-authorized. Although the original licensee (domestic publishing house) has the priority to purchase the new version, if you give up, the copyright of the new version will be purchased by other domestic publishing houses. Your old version will naturally fail in the China market.

3. Sub-licensing agreement. If it is stipulated in the contract that the copyright owner grants the publishing house the right of "sub-licensing" for several years (not exceeding the validity period of the contract) and the specific proportion of income, the publishing house has the right to issue sub-licensing to other publishing houses and obtain the benefits that may be brought by "sub-licensing". For example, in the early days, Taiwan Province Publishing House or its agents authorized overseas translation works to the mainland, because the mainland's copyright trade started late, and they seized the global Chinese copyright. Now most western countries already know that there are simplified and traditional Chinese versions, and the authorization has been separated. However, for countries and publishing houses unfamiliar with China's copyright trade, our mainland publishing houses can still fight for global Chinese copyright to safeguard their own interests.

4. On the issue of providing foreign language samples for trial translation before publication. A few foreign publishing companies or authors are particularly strict about the translated versions of their works, and they will ask the Chinese side to provide translations for their review before they are officially published. In this case, our publishing house should not "treat this as a joke" or "strike first" or take the opportunity to deceive "foreigners". Otherwise, you can wait for the other party's lawyer's letter.

In the case that our publishing house has no experience in foreign copyright trade and no professionals engaged in copyright trade, it is a shortcut to entrust an authoritative copyright agency in China to operate.

Avoid vicious competition, so that "the snipe and the clam compete, and the fisherman gains." Due to the increasingly fierce competition in book introduction, the purchase conditions of copyright trade (advance payment and edition tax rate) of Chinese publishing houses are on the rise. In fact, except for large foreign publishing companies with offices in China, most foreign publishers don't know much about the book market in China. Foreign copyright owners (especially those who do copyright trade with China for the first time) often simply combine the population of China with the purchasing power of the book market and give optimistic expectations to the China market, while ignoring the huge gap between the book pricing in China and the western book price level. Usually, if China publishers objectively analyze the real book market in China, it is possible to get a reasonable royalty price. The problem is that some domestic publishing houses now adopt a blind attitude of rushing to publish foreign books. "The dishes are all in the basket." Especially in the copyright competition of some books that are in short supply, some publishing houses, regardless of their own affordability, bid up royalties, resulting in artificially raised edition tax rate reaching an abnormal level. In this case, if you pay a high price for copyright, you are actually buying a high risk. The more serious result is that foreign publishing society thinks that since some people in your Chinese publishing house can afford this price, it is only natural for me to raise the price. Not long ago, an American publishing company told me that all the books they sold to China were 1 1,000-1 2,000, but they heard that an Australian company that published similar books sold books to China in advance of more than 1 1,500 each, so they felt a big loss because they thought their books were of the same quality as those published by Australian companies. Now this American company has made it clear that the copyright price of books they sell to China will be raised in the future. This living example really responds to China's old saying that "the snipe and the clam struggle, and the fisherman gains", and it is the Chinese publishing house that suffers. The vicious competition in copyright trade not only damages the overall image of China's publishing industry, but also encourages some overseas rights holders to ask exorbitant prices and fish in troubled waters.

Copyright output "The road is long, Xiu Yuan Xi Xiu Yuan Xi"

On the one hand, while the introduction of copyright in China is in full swing, the obvious deficit of copyright output is an indisputable fact. Look at the data of these two years. For example, in 2002, the national copyright output was 1297, and in 2003 it was 13 17. Most of them are exported to Hongkong, Taiwan Province and Asian countries. If we count the number of exports to Europe and the United States, I am afraid it will only account for one or two percentage points. In this case, the annual import and export ratio of copyright in China is 9: 1, while the actual import and export ratio to European and American countries is about 400: 1 1.

Is copyright export really that difficult? Although leaders at all levels have long attached importance to this issue, they have repeatedly stressed the need to focus on copyright export. However, due to the weak cultural status of Chinese in the world, the obstacles in translation language and the imperfect export channels, it is often "much cry and little rain" to do a good job in copyright export.

First of all, as far as cultural barriers are concerned, I often discuss with foreign publishers at international book fairs that the themes of China books that readers in their countries can see or are interested in are mostly novels written by China writers who have lived abroad for many years to cater to the tastes of western readers, and the readers are mainly from China. The problem now is that we know a lot about the world, but the world knows too little about China! This is of course related to a country's economic development level and comprehensive national strength. With China becoming a hot spot attracting worldwide attention, the "China element" has gradually warmed up in western countries, and now some western writers have gone to China to look for writing materials. Our domestic institutions can also consider organizing international writers or publishers interested in China, inviting them to come to China for personal experience and face-to-face communication with China writers, so as to create opportunities for China writers and cultures to truly go global and gradually become familiar with the world.

Secondly, as far as language barriers are concerned, all publishers or agents who have tried it know that the export of copyright is easy to succeed in Hong Kong and Taiwan because there is no language barrier. It is much more difficult to recommend the same book to European and American countries. Because of language problems, a lot of translation work should be done in advance, and no matter what the quality of translation is, who will bear the translation costs? The author himself, a publishing house or a foreign publishing company? In this way, the investment in translation fees is often a "waste of water". Long cycle, large investment and poor effect. Over time, publishers or agents are not so persistent in exporting copyright to European and American countries. Drawing lessons from the mechanism and mode of exporting their own culture in France, South Korea and other countries, the government usually sets up an official or semi-official or private overseas publishing foundation to help their own books publish and distribute overseas by sponsoring translators, copyright buyers or publishing and distributing.

There are also questions about recommendation channels. When large foreign publishing groups carry out copyright export business, they often hand over their publications to authoritative professional copyright agencies for centralized publishing. Editors of foreign publishing companies often consider whether to publish under the recommendation of professional institutions or agents when choosing topics and making decisions. This means that if you want to recommend China's manuscript to be published abroad, you should not only have an accurate translation, but also "find the right person"-that is, a copyright agency willing to recommend the manuscript or a foreign publishing company willing to publish the translated manuscript. The reason why the copyright of The Dust Settled by Alai was exported to the United States was a great success was that the Tibetan theme of the novel itself attracted western readers, and an American copyright agency contributed to the successful recommendation and operation of the book.

If our domestic copyright agency can timely and accurately convey the demand information of overseas markets for China publications, while the publishing house is "centralized authorized" and the agency is "unified operated", then the bridge in China's copyright export work will really be established. We also call on the state to formulate preferential tax and capital policies, support one or two large domestic copyright agencies, and promote the development of China's copyright export.

Copyright agent "sunrise or sunset"

Internationally, according to the requirements of socialization and specialization, copyright agents are very active in the publishing industry and often play an important role in copyright trade. For example, in the United States, where copyright trade is the most active, there are more than 600 copyright agencies. There are more than 200 in Britain. Even in Germany, Japan, France, Russia and other countries with relatively few copyright agencies, their copyright collective management systems are sound, and to some extent, those copyright collective management organizations are also implementing the role of copyright agents.

So what is the situation of copyright agency industry in China? At present, there are 28 professional copyright agencies approved by the state, with more than 0/00 employees. Even with the addition of trade associations, cultural companies and returnees who are keen on cultural exchanges, the total number of copyright agents is only a few hundred. Judging from the distribution of copyright agencies, the above 28 agencies, except for 5 agencies specializing in film, television and audio-visual products, the remaining 23 agencies are limited to book copyright agencies. Only a few people can really play a role in copyright trade. From the service content, the main business of copyright agency can be divided into two parts: one is international copyright trade, such as the import and export of agency copyright; The other is domestic copyright agency, such as contacting publishing, providing copyright consultation, acting as an agent to solve copyright disputes, acting as an agent for litigation, etc.

Judging from the role of copyright agencies in international copyright trade, in foreign countries, most small and medium-sized publishing companies realize copyright trade through professional copyright agencies, except for large publishing groups that have their own special copyright trade departments. The reality in China is that publishing houses, big or small, do business with different overseas publishing houses or overseas copyright agencies, which is inefficient and inefficient, and consumes a lot of manpower, financial resources and material resources. Of course, there is an objective situation here, that is, the development of China's copyright agency industry is only ten years. Compared with overseas agencies, the competitiveness of China's copyright agency is relatively weak. In this case, foreign intermediaries use their years of resource advantages to monopolize a large number of overseas high-quality copyright resources in stages and sell them at high prices in China. This is very unfavorable to the foreign copyright trade of Chinese publishing houses. Therefore, on this issue, the ideal state is that Chinese publishing houses "centrally authorize" their own copyright agencies in China, hand over the import and export of copyright to professional and authoritative copyright agencies, and concentrate on their own publishing work. On the one hand, support the work of young domestic copyright agencies and their competition with overseas copyright agencies; On the other hand, it is also to save the publishing house's expenditure on human and financial resources, make full use of the advantages of existing professional talents, wide channels and strong coordination ability of copyright agencies, effectively safeguard their own interests and avoid unfair competition in copyright trade.

Judging from the role of copyright agencies in domestic copyright trade, China's agencies are involved in providing copyright consultation, acting as agents to solve copyright disputes, and acting as agents in litigation, but the work of acting as agents for domestic authors has hardly been carried out. The best summary is "the heart is willing, but the strength is insufficient". Writers' agency is the most important role of foreign copyright agencies in the publishing stage. Most foreign writers sign contracts with publishing houses through agents and undertake a package of copyright affairs related to their works. In this way, writers can concentrate more on their creation. However, at present, the business of writers' agency in China has not been developed vividly. From the writer's point of view, out of China's traditional concept, more people like to do it by themselves, thinking that their own manuscript fee is not much, so where are they willing to give others a commission? As far as famous writers are concerned, their works are "hot" as soon as they are born. Where do I need an agent to recommend the manuscript to the publishing house? Therefore, few writers in China take the initiative to contact copyright agencies. From the perspective of copyright agency, from the most basic economic point of view, if 10% of the author's due fee is taken as the agency commission, in most cases, people can't make ends meet, and there are few well-known best-selling authors and best-selling books. How do we support ourselves by extracting commissions from fixed fees? So the enthusiasm is not high.

Publishing and copyright industries are recognized as "sunrise industries". Although there are many difficulties and challenges in China at present, there is no reason for copyright agency to be a "sunset industry". The key is that the copyright agencies in China should change the status of serving only publishers, and be good at tapping the potential and making profits from the depth and breadth of copyright. Whether a copyright agency can stand firm in the fierce market competition depends on how many copyright resources it has and how to manage and revitalize these resources. Without these resources, institutions are "cooking without rice", unable to provide services for cultural industries, and certainly unable to survive, let alone develop.

Copyright agency, usually called a bridge, connects the copyright owner at one end and the copyright user at the other end. At present, for domestic copyright agencies, it is imperative to explore and seize domestic and foreign copyright resources and actively try the copyright market of film and television works, computer software, artistic photography works, practical artistic works and information industry; Cultivate talents, find a good position, build a brand, and establish a copyright agency with international competitiveness and all-round agency ability.