Translator Compensation Cases Could Rock Market for German Licenses
Agents, authors and publishers should brace themselves for complex legal
developments in the world's largest market for books translated from English that
could both reduce proceeds and restrict demand in the future. Three court
cases now on appeal in Germany regarding the compensation of translators are
expected to reach final resolution shortly, and already some German publishers are
telling agents to prepare for different terms of business as a result. As one
prominent German agent puts it, "It's highly explosive and will probably
change the entire translation landscape in Germany. The question will now be, 'Do
we really need that book?'"
In a number of recent cases, German courts have ruled that translators are
entitled to share in some measure in all royalties earned by books they work
on--a demand for as much as a 3 percent royalty on both hardcovers and paperbacks
in one case--and in the cases currently on appeal, the courts also ruled that
translators should receive of 25 percent of all gross subsidiary rights
income, including paperback licenses. If prior rulings, which apparently derive
from a copyright law passed by the German Parliament three years ago, are upheld,
publishers would be considered liable for back payments on previous works,
which reportedly could amount to hundreds of thousands or even millions of euros
for the translators of the most successful authors. Additional complexities
remained unresolved, including how the 25 percent share would apply to
paperbacks issued within the same group as part of hard/soft rights purchases.
A group of trade publishers is scheduled to discuss the issue as part of a
larger meeting in Munich today, though our correspondent reports that "they have
explicitly excluded agents because they want to discuss it among themselves
but they have invited the press." For the moment, in a situation that remains
unresolved until the appeals are adjudicated, some publishers are formulating
new positions. Head of Hanser Verlag Michael Kruger told the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung that under the proposed new rates, approximately 85 percent of
their titles would not be publishable. Agent Sebastian Ritscher at Mohrbooks
echoes this sentiment, observing that "This is going to have a tremendous impact,
especially on publishers who depend on income from paperpack licences (like
Hanser or Antje Kunstmann). What translators are asking for would reduce the
publisher's share to 15 percent and make a lot of translated books impossible to
calculate."
Ritscher notes "the outcome is as yet uncertain," but confirms that "most
publishers assume that one way or another translators will be getting a higher
share in royalties and, possibly, a share in subrights income." His particular
concern is that "We have to protect the authors who in some cases (especially
mass-market genre paperback fiction) already get less out of their German
editions than the translators."
Last month another publisher, Luebbe Verlag, sent a letter reportedly
announcing a reduction in standard royalties and a different split in other income in
advance of any final court decision. As one agent explained, "It created a
lot of unrest as it seemed to indicate that the publishers are ready to cave
in." The recent FAZ article indicates that publishers are also exploring
outsourcing translation work to Austria and Switzerland as one possible solution.