Negotiation Planning Guide

$1.$ What are the issues to be negotiated? $($Column $2)$

$2.$ What are the priorities among the issues in the bargaining mix? $($Column $1)$

$3.$ What are my limits on each issues $$ walkaway points and BATNAs? What are my target points and opening requests on each issues. $($Column $3,4,5,$ and $6)$

$1.$ Priority $2.$ Issue $3.$ Opening Request $4.$ Target Point $5.$ Walkaway Point $($Resistance Point$)6.$ BATNA

$4.$ What are the primary underlying interests?

$5.$ Who are the important constituencies to whom I am accountable?

$6.$ What do I know about the other negotiator$$s interests, negotiating style, and personal reputation?

$7.$ What overall strategy do I want to pursue?

$8.$ What do I need to assemble $$ research, documents, charts and graphs, and so on $$ to make the most effective presentation on what I want to achieve? What tactics will I use to present my arguments or defend against the other negotiator$$s arguments?

$9.$ What protocol is important for the negotiations: where we negotiate, when we negotiate, who is present for the negotiation, agenda to be followed, note taking? Also, what is our backup plan if this negotiation fails?

Source: page $519$ of Negotiations, Exercises and Cases $7$th Edition by Lewicki, Barry and Saunder

Confidential Role Our Home Publishing

Best$-$selling author Rachel Green is looking to change publishers and is entertaining the idea of signing a contact with your company Our Home Publishing. Rachel and her team will be negotiating a deal with you, the senior representative from Our Home Publishing and your team.

The president of Our Home Publishing has stated that it would be great to have the popular Rachel Green join Our Home Publishing$$s list of authors but cautioned that Rachel Green was to be treated like any other author when negotiating a contract. It is imperative that you negotiate a good deal for Our Home Publishing; the last senior representative was released for being too generous when signing on new authors. Another representative was released for not achieving a contract and losing a long$-$term author.

You know Rachel Green will want to negotiate royalties, contract signing bonus and an advance. The average royalties you pay in your company is $10\%,$ with new authors getting $5\%$ and the highest royalty being $15\%.$ The contract$-$signing bonus is expected; however you were told not to go above $$40,000$ but try to remain below $$30,000.$ You would not like to give an advance. Rachel Green is a best$-$selling author and has lots of money and shouldn$$t need one. You have given struggling author$$s up to $$60,000$ but $$30,000$ is a high as you would like to go$.$ As far as the advance is concerned, you don$$t understand why you should agree to both a signing bonus and an advance. To not give a signing bonus would be an insult, so you prefer to resist an advance. Finally, the strictly monetary issues $($royalties$,$ signing bonus$)$ come straight from company profits and with the increased competitiveness in the publishing business you need to be as stingy as you can.

Print runs, country distribution and book clubs should also be discussed. The more print runs the better. If you could agree to five book runs that would be ideal the one print one would be the worst$-$case scenario. The more countries the books are distributed in the better. Fourteen countries would be the goal, however $10$ is the average. Getting five book clubs to adopt the book would be amazing three is the average for your company.

Recently authors have started to act like sports stars and have been trying to leverage publishers against each other by changing publishers frequently. Our Home Publishing has resigned itself to this trend and would rather sign new, high profile writers than try to sign writers to several books $($of course in the unlikely event that you could sign Rachel to more, that is fine$).$

You would also like Rachel to promote the book for $35$ weeks. The more she promotes it the higher the sales. She is a well$-$known best$-$selling author the more she promotes the books the higher the sales. The average number of weeks your author$$s promote is $25$ weeks.

Your goal is to negotiate the best deal possible. The president of Our Home Publishing would be quite unhappy if no contract results from the negotiations.