Licensing Fees for Translations

A philosopher who has written several books has a question about the publication of translations. Often, translations of books are published by a publisher different from the one that put out the original book. As part of the agreement between the publishers, the new publisher pays a licensing fee to the original publisher for the rights to publish a translation in a specified language in a specified territory. Whether it makes economic sense for a publisher to put out a translation may depend on what the licensing fee is. In this case, the author’s book was originally published by a well-known and well-regarded press. The process of publishing the translation has been underway, but the author was recently told by the person managing this process that the original publisher “has raised the licensing fee for this book to $3,000” and that “this amount presents a considerable strain on the [translating] publisher’s resources.” The author is curious as to whether $3000 is a common licensing fee for academic books, and what goes into the determination of that fee. Another question is whether an author’s intervention in the process—say, by asking to lower the licensing fee—is appropriate or likely to be effective. Authors who have been in this position, as well as editors and others who work at publishers, are especially encouraged to comment. Thank you. The post Licensing Fees for Translations first appeared on Daily Nous.