Katie Price on how licensors can make their brands attractive to publishers

Katie, it’s good to chat! First, can you give us a quick summary of your career to date – and how you have combined the worlds of publishing and licensing?
My first role – almost 20 years ago now – was as a Publishing Sales Exec at HIT Entertainment. I sold book and magazine rights to Bob the Builder – the first time round! – Angelina Ballerina, Thomas, Fireman Sam and Pingu. I had always loved books and been an avid reader from an early age, so finding myself at Bologna and London Bookfair was a dream come true.

After 12 years – and three kids – it was time to move on. I joined Hachette as their new Licensing Director and found myself on the other side of the fence as a licensee where I acquired Pokemon, PJ Masks and PowerPuff Girls.

An opportunity to join the Roald Dahl team was too good to turn down so I spent four incredible years there followed recently by a shorter stint at Paramount. I was the Chairperson of the first Licensing Group for a while and felt lucky to be a part of two such incredible – but very different – industries.

Why do you think publishers are attracted to rights sourced from the licensing world?
Many licences often originate from very different sources, such as toys, gaming, collectables, film, TV and so on, and sell in very different retail channels. This gives publishers access to new channels of distribution and a whole new demographic of consumers and readers.

Publishers benefit from the marketing spend, advertising and hype that a big toy company and licensor will bring. A trend such as Loom Bands can drive huge sales as publishers can get books to market relatively quickly.

“Publishers benefit from the marketing spend, advertising and hype that a big licensor will bring.”

Not all publishers tap into the licensing market. What do you think holds publishers back from using licensing?
Well, as we all know, not every licence will be a hit, no matter how much you believe it should be… So it’s risky and a gamble – and you have to speculate to accumulate… But it’s so worth it if you get it right! Some publishers are also put off by the expectation of big MGs, short contracts and the pressure to go to market too soon – and not always being in control.

Thinking about the last 12 months, what would you highlight as some of the key trends in the publishing market as far as licensing is concerned?
There’s always an animal trend! We’ve had llamas, flamingos, narwhals and now it’s all about axolotls! In terms of formats, I’ve seen some great crafting books this year – crystal art, finger painting and paint by numbers is still a big trend… Publishers always love an anniversary special edition too!

There seems to be a lot of focus on gaming properties in licensing these days. How do these fit into the publishing market? Do they perform well?
The key here is to offer something else that the game doesn’t provide. It’s about brand extension, new storytelling and new insights into that world. It’s not repetition of the game and what you already know. The Minecraft books were a great example of this and sold phenomenally well.

Drilling down into design for a moment, are there key points designers should think about when working on licensed books? Or pitfalls to dodge?
It’s so important to follow the style guide – which sounds so obvious but it’s there for a reason! Be creative and make use of the assets, but don’t flip characters, don’t change the logo, don’t use your own fonts… Also, try to respect the approval turnaround timings!

Good answer! Now, what role do you think celebrity authors are playing for publishers these days? Do you think their presence is stifling opportunities for up and coming ‘unknown’ authors?
Celebrity authors can drive huge sales but they do need to be able to write and/or illustrate well – it’s not just about capitalising on their name. I think that publishers have become more selective in terms of who they sign now and don’t want a list which is too reliant on celebrities. However, they will continue to get the big campaign spend and attention that a debut author won’t attract. But there’s always BookTok!

What advice would you give to an IP owner looking to sell their brands to publishers? How can they make themselves more attractive?
Publishers want to be able to tell good stories and create great content, so provide them with the assets they need. Publishing requires so much more than other categories – they need scripts, synopsis, screen grabs, poses, black and white line art and so on. There’s never enough!

Listen to the publisher in terms of the best time of year to launch – don’t pressure them to go too early and with too many formats. Be more flexible in terms of MGs and be honest in terms of your plans for the brand.

“Publishing requires so much more than other categories…”

Publishing can be an international business. Can you give us some insight to the international rights side of publishing deals in licensing?
Some smaller IP owners may look to agree a global publishing deal which includes all territories and all languages. Many of the major publishing houses will have a big rights team who are attending all the big fairs and travelling a great deal. This isn’t as profitable as doing the deal directly but works well if the rights owner doesn’t have a big international team or local offices.

You can always go the agency route if they have publishing expertise. They will obviously take a percentage but will have good local market knowledge. Some deals will include English language export rights only and then the IP owner will sell local language rights themselves. This however requires more administration in terms of contracts and reporting, more approvals and a bigger team.

Katie, this has been great. I have one last question – with a nod of appreciation to Desert Island Discs! What would be your desert island books of choice in these categories: novel, picture book and licensed title…
On the novel front, we listen to a lot of audio books while on car journeys. We have just finished listening to The Hunger Games series including the new prequel, so they are fresh in my mind. In my opinion, it’s the greatest dystopian fiction of all time. Can’t wait for the new title next year: Sunrise on the Reaping.

My picture book would be Oi Frog by Kes Gray and Jim Field – and the other Oi rhyming books in the series are just so clever and funny. Happy memories reading those to my kids.

My licensed title would be the Thomas the Tank Engine Little Library – a 65-book set! I’m obviously biased as I worked on this series whilst at HIT and it was a labour of love! One book per engine – that would keep you busy if stuck on a desert island and you couldn’t swim home – although I’d give it a go!

Good picks! Thanks Katie.