Acquire, license, and publish with agreements that hold up — and rights you can actually track.
Running a press means managing other people's work and your own rights at the same time. Clear publishing and co-publishing agreements, clean rights and royalty records, and a repeatable submissions process keep the business protectable as you grow.
What's inside
- Publishing agreements — book publishing, co-publishing and partnership, and subsidiary & foreign rights licensing.
- Systems — rights and royalties tracking, submissions and acquisitions workflow, and a contractor/1099 kit for freelancers.
- Setup — production and distribution setup, and holding-company and subsidiary structure.
Common questions
What contracts does a small press need?
A small press typically needs a book publishing agreement (covering rights, royalties, and term), co-publishing or partnership agreements when sharing costs, and subsidiary or foreign rights licenses to sub-license translations and formats. Contractor and 1099 agreements cover freelance editors, designers, and narrators.
What's the difference between assigning and licensing book rights?
An assignment transfers ownership of the copyright to the publisher; a license grants permission to use the work for a defined scope, territory, format, and term while the author keeps ownership. Most publishing deals are licenses, not full assignments — which is why reversion and term clauses matter.
How should a publisher track rights and royalties?
Keep one record per title of which rights you hold (print, ebook, audio, translation, and territory), the term and reversion dates, and the royalty rate for each author. A rights-and-royalties tracker prevents double-licensing the same rights and missing a reversion date.
