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Elisabeth Kerr is Vice President, Executive Director, Global Rights. She joined Norton in 2000 as Foreign Rights Manager, and enjoyed growing in her role as the company added imprints and divisions in subsequent years. She was named Subsidiary Rights Director in 2016, taking on additional responsibilities in domestic rights as well as oversight of the department. In her current position, she also maintains a focus on audiobooks and liaises with Norton’s London office. She is based in the New York office.
What is your current role and what part do you play in the book publishing process?
Essentially, I run the subsidiary rights department, which is responsible for licensing Norton books from all our divisions into other formats—from audiobooks to large-print editions—and other languages, to which end we work closely with publishers around the world. The licenses we conclude generate income to the benefit of both our authors and our bottom line. We work with books as early as acquisition and for decades thereafter; we are just as likely to be selling rights to a proposal we signed last week as a book we published in the 1960s.
How did you end up at Norton, or what enticed you to apply?
I came to Norton after seven years at major corporate publishers, seeking a more intimate work environment (we were a lot smaller in 2000!) and a consistently high-quality list. Norton’s unique combination of collective collegiality and superb publishing appealed to me immensely—and still does. The rights world is quite small and I was acquainted with the person leaving the position, so I rang her and asked who I needed to speak with about the job.
For your current role, what does an average day look like?
A flurry of emails first thing in the morning from contacts in Asia, Europe, and other time zones. Meetings through the midmorning: editorial board meetings, discussions of strategy for individual books, pitch meetings with visiting foreign editors or scouts, or efforts with colleagues to refine procedures and workflow. A block of time dedicated to audiobook matters, from auctions to narrator selection to general market research. Wrap up at the end of the day with my team. And all day long, questions, questions, questions—we’re always (very happily) explaining how the rights business works to authors, agents, and colleagues!
What skills do you need to succeed in your job? Did any previous work or life experience help you in your role?
There is a lot to juggle in the subsidiary rights department, and many tasks or questions are time-sensitive, so organization and efficiency are two key skills for success (spreadsheets help!). Being outgoing, curious, and articulate is important—in these jobs, we interact with people all over the company, all over the country, and all over the world. People who thrive in this department welcome a wide variety of connection and contact. I personally was drawn to the field for the opportunity to interact with publishers worldwide, and it remains a deeply fulfilling part of my life 30 years later (and, no, other languages are not required; English is the lingua franca of the international rights community).
What have been some of your favorite projects? Are there any projects or initiatives you introduced to your department or Norton?
I have been incredibly fortunate to work on any number of landmark titles over the years. Hearing that Joseph Stiglitz had won a Nobel in Economics as I arrived at the annual Frankfurt book fair in 2001 when I had a brand-new proposal to sell was an early highlight—we had auctions underway in 11 countries by the end of the fair. Licensing Neil Gaiman or Neil deGrasse Tyson in upward of 40 languages each has been great fun. Prominent projects such as Nelson Mandela’s Prison Letters or Paul McCartney’s Lyrics can be complex but are thrilling. To this day, I delight whenever we sell a book in a language we have not worked in previously, whether Yoruba, Swahili, or Mongolian. And there is no better feeling for a rights person than placing exactly the right book in the hands of exactly the right editor.
How has your current job/role changed while you’ve worked at Norton?
Rights is a dynamic and constantly evolving field, which is one of the things that I find exciting about it. In 1993, in my first position, I regularly sold Serbo-Croatian rights to Yugoslavian publishers; first serial rights could sell for six figures; everyone auctioned paperback rights to other houses; and audiobooks filled a microscopic niche for visually impaired readers. Today, audio is a billion-dollar industry; everyone publishes their own paperbacks; and rights staff respond to questions about use of our content in ticketed, live-streaming marathon readings.
Have you participated in any programs at Norton?
Most recently, I’ve volunteered to act as mentor in our official mentorship program, which I have found tremendously rewarding. There are opportunities to mentor/be mentored from within one’s immediate colleague circle; I appreciate that our program matches people across disciplines and divisions whom we might not otherwise have met. Especially now that many of our staff works remotely full-time, the additional connections offered and fostered are, I’ve found, valuable and welcomed.
What advice would you give someone just starting out in publishing?
Meet as many people as you can, both within the company and outside the company. Take the growth opportunities offered here at Norton, from our mentorship program to seminars like Lunch and Learn. Never hesitate to ask a question!
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