First Novels: Under The Gavel Of A Book Auction
This series on first novels continues with a look at the book auction: what triggers one, how one is organized, and what running one is like. Previous posts covered how agents fall in love with books and how editors acquire them.
Book auctions are not all that uncommon. As Karen Dionne writes in dailyfinance.com: "For a book to go to auction, all that's required is for two or more publishers to want to purchase it."
There are three basic models for book auctions. Michelle Brower of Folio Literary Management – who sold Tara Conklin's first novel, The House Girl – explains them:
The most basic and most frequent is a round robin auction, where publishers submit offers and keep besting each other until there is only the highest bidder left. There is also a best bids auction, where publishers know how many other people are bidding, but they only have one chance to make an offer and the highest wins the auction. Then there's the two-round best bid auction, which is like the best bid but the top two or three publishers get another chance to improve their offer.