The 'rights' stuff

Whenever a translated foreign book is introduced on the market or at any book fair and becomes a best-seller, most of the credit for the Thai version usually goes to the translator and the publisher.

We seem to overlook one person who also plays a vital role in bringing those books to the Thai reading public. The one who really works in the frontline in the dealing process before any translated book can be published.

Does anyone think about the rights officer?

Late afternoon one day in Soi Sukhumvit 31, Autchara Sirinuntapiwat, the rights officer at Nanmeebooks Publications, gave us some time after finishing with her daily work to talk about what the rights officer does in bringing a well-known international book to Thai bookworms.

"Actually, this job really involves multitasking, dealing with almost every major process before a book is printed and launched," she began, without any sign of being tired.

Autchara's duty starts once the company shows signs of interest in a book found in a book-recommendation magazine or website and passes down the name and other details to her.

"What I do first is contact the overseas publisher who holds the rights to that book to express our interest. However, if the overseas publisher has an agent in Thailand, I will contact the domestic agent instead.

"Normally, the company will have a contact number of a local agent in its database. But if there is no record, I have to contact directly to the overseas publisher."

After the letter of interest has been sent and received, a sample book from the rights-holding publisher will be sent back for primary review before both companies make an official deal.

It is the role of the rights officer to do a primary review by providing basic information to other units at Nanmeebooks for further consideration before sending it again to the company's owner to make a final decision whether to buy the book rights.

"Primary information is about the scope and type of the book. I will roughly read through the book to see what it is mainly about. And I'll check how the book has sold overseas. How many rights have been sold worldwide? Does the style of the book relate to the publishing policy of the company?" says Autchara.

"If we already published a book with a similar style I do a review. If that book did not sell well here, I will make a comment about that."

However, that doesn't mean the rights officer does not have any voice in selecting the book for the company. Autchara, 25, says that sometimes she will recommend a book she likes and thinks will be a success.

Autchara estimates that 70 per cent of her work is done on the computer. Most of the business contacts are made via e-mail, fax and phone. The other 30 per cent is dedicated to coordinating jobs, such as managing the programmes of overseas guest writers for interviews, visiting local agencies and publishers and organising business meetings.

"For an international book fair in a foreign country, I have to fly there to arrange meetings for our people with overseas publishers."

Autchara has been to the huge Frankfurt International Book Fair in Germany and is scheduled to attend an upcoming fair in Taipei.

When talking about a job dealing with rights and copyrights, many people might think the most essential qualification is knowledge of the law. But Autchara, who has been a rights officer for four years, says legal knowledge is not the most important thing in her opinion.

What is very much needed in this type of job is good English.

"English is important because we use it no matter which country we're dealing with," she says.

"It's good to have some legal background. But if you don't, you can learn it by doing. I had a tough time understanding and summarising all those English-language legal contracts for the first four or five months. But you get used to it pretty quickly."

Autchara holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Srinakharinwirot University and a master's in English for Career from Thammasat University.

One bonus of her career, Autchara says, is that it gives her the chance to read through almost every book that the company publishes.

"Though I'm not the writer of the books, I'm always happy every time I see readers love the book I selected and worked on. It makes me feel like I am the one who introduced something good and useful for them," she says.

"Sometimes, when we have a book fair in Thailand and I go to help at my company's sales booth, I always enjoy meeting and talking with readers, and with children from different schools. It is another good side of my work."

The average monthly salary of a rights officer is between Bt10,000 and Bt20,000.

Story by Watchara Saengsrisin

Photo by Wanchai kraisornkhajit

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