A journey in Publishing with Clare Hodder

Clare Hodder is one of the founding directors of RightsZone – a cloud based, database and workflow app for rights professionals. She also runs Rights2 with fellow RightsZone Director Ruth Tellis, offering consultancy and training across all aspects of rights acquisition and licensing. 

Having been in the frontline of rights licensing and management for over 20 years (latterly as Rights Director, Palgrave Macmillan), Clare thrives on finding practical, easy to implement solutions that help publishers realise the full potential of their rights business. Clare sells rights for innovative, independent publisher Practical Inspiration Publishing and (with Ruth) runs the Rights2gether networking group for rights professionals. 

Clare is a regular contributor and attendee at industry events, sits on the PLS Rights Management Group and the BISG Rights Committee and is a contributor to the latest edition of Clark’s Publishing Agreements.

To celebrate Work in Publishing week we asked Clare some questions about her journey in the publishing industry.

Hello! First up can you tell us a little bit about your current role? What does your usual day look like?

Because I wear several hats, I can genuinely say that no two days are ever the same! I work from home which suits me as I have kids to take to and from school and to various activities, so I can plan my hours around that. Most days will start with a quick check of the email in box so I can check for anything urgent that may have come in and needs to be dealt with immediately. Then I try to allocate blocks of time for various things on my to do list. I might be creating user guides or marketing material for RightsZone, working on a consultancy project for Rights2 or creating contracts for translation rights I’ve sold for Practical Inspiration.

On any given day I’m likely to have one or more virtual meetings. These could be virtual book fair appointments to pitch the Practical Inspiration list, they could be internal meetings, product demos or customer training sessions for RightsZone or I might be planning the next rights2gether networking event with Ruth. I get out and about too, attending industry events like book fairs and conferences as well as meeting up regularly with my RightsZone team and visiting clients.

How did you get into publishing and how would you describe your journey to your current role?

We had to do a work experience placement at secondary school so I applied (along with many others) to our local paper as I wanted to be a journalist. Since they were over-subscribed, I was offered a ‘similar’ placement at the publishing division of the AA in their travel guides team. I spent two weeks there and loved every minute of it. From then on I knew that publishing was the career for me. After my A-levels I did a post-graduate course in publishing and then got a job for a publicity consultancy.  I had wanted to work in marketing and so was pleased to land a job in PR which used many of the marketing skills I had developed. 

However I was living at home and the commute into London was expensive, and the salary low. After seven or eight months I found a job advertised for a rights assistant that was 15 minutes from home. I didn’t know anything much about rights but applied anyway and was shocked to get an interview. The interviewer was lovely and we got on really well, she hired me and taught me what I needed to know. She moved on after a year or two and I got promoted. I grew the business each year, taking on more staff to support the increased workload and acquiring a broader range of responsibilities, culminating in becoming Rights Director.

Just after I’d had my two children, the company relocated to London and still not wanting to commute, my colleague Ruth and I struck out on our own to form our consultancy business Rights2. It was a great decision as it has meant we have had the opportunity to really broaden our skills and experience by working with a huge variety of publishers and service providers. After a while we realised that our consulting clients were struggling to manage their businesses with the software available to them. We teamed up with some former colleagues and created RightsZone – a cloud-based app to help rights professionals manage their rights sales operation more effectively. As the director of a software company I’m now doing things I never dreamed of when I first thought about a career in publishing!

I suppose the main thing is to be curious. Find out all you can about publishing, and ask lots of questions. People often think publishing is all about being an editor in a trade fiction house. In fact that is only a tiny part of the industry. 

How would you describe the publishing industry and what do you enjoy most about working in publishing?

I really enjoy working in the publishing industry and mainly that’s due to the people. Publishing people tend to be thoughtful, friendly and very supportive of their peers. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some brilliant senior leaders during my career who have acted as informal coaches and mentors, and I see that replicated throughout the industry. Lets face it people don’t get into publishing because they want to make millions, so what motivates people is a belief in what they are doing and that creates a shared sense of purpose across the business and a desire to support new entrants to the industry too. Publishing is not without its issues, the lack of diversity having been a huge problem for far too long. I’m pleased to see the industry coming together collaboratively to try to make positive change on this and other issues such as the climate crisis.

Do you have a memorable achievement or moment from working in publishing that you can share?

There are a few things I’m very proud of having achieved in my career to date. I am proud of creating and growing a really successful rights team, I’m proud of having the courage to step away from that and start my consultancy practice and I am really proud of taking a huge risk to become a software entrepreneur when I started RightsZone with my co-directors! 

I’m also really proud that together Ruth and I have done a number of things to raise the profile of rights and to support rights professionals in their careers. As well as having created RightsZone, we helped PLS to win The Stationers Company award for Innovation through our work on PLSClear which has transformed the way that people handle permissions requests, we launched Rights2gether, our networking group, which during the pandemic transitioned on-line and became a great space for people to keep in touch and support each other with the huge changes we were experiencing. We actively participate in industry conversations around rights and make a point of regularly taking on paid interns and supporting those new to the industry whenever we can. I hope there will be many more things to be proud of as my work in publishing continues!

What advice or top tips would you give to someone who is considering a career in publishing?

I suppose the main thing is to be curious. Find out all you can about publishing, and ask lots of questions. People often think publishing is all about being an editor in a trade fiction house. In fact that is only a tiny part of the industry. There are all kinds of products that make up our industry, magazines, journals, digital products as well as books. There are all kinds of audiences too – academic, professional, educational as well both fiction and non-fiction products for a general audience of adult and children. The range of roles is varied, from production to marketing, contracts to international sales, editorial, finance and of course rights and licensing! 

To be really successful in publishing you need more than a passion for literature. Publishing houses are businesses and even not for profits need to make money to cover their overheads. Whatever role you are seeking, being aware of some basic business principles, being able to navigate a spreadsheet and showing some commercial understanding of how publishing works will help give you an edge.

This interview with Clare Hodder at RightsZone was written for Work in Publishing week for publishers.org.uk.

Find out more about Work in Publishing week here.