Recording an author contract

A rights contract records a promise about rights. Either someone grants your workspace the right to publish a book, or you grant a right to somebody else. This guide covers three parts: the contract itself, what it covers, and what it pays.

Contracts is included in the Publisher plan. To create a contract, you need editor access or higher. To add the money, you need administrator access and a plan that includes Royalties.

Start the contract

  1. In the sidebar, under Business, open Contracts.
  2. Click New rights contract.

The form has three short sections.

The contract

Field What to put in it
Contract name What you call this contract. The list shows this.
Contract with The person or company on the other side, from your People list
Direction Rights granted to us, or Rights we grant

Direction is the field to get right:

  • Choose Rights granted to us when an author lets you publish.
  • Choose Rights we grant when you pass a right to a foreign publisher, a film producer or anyone else.

Royalty runs pay only on contracts granted to you.

Dates

Start date and End date are both optional.

  • Leave Start date blank if the contract always applied.
  • Leave End date blank if the contract still runs.

Notes takes anything worth remembering.

Click Add contract. Pubblish opens the contract’s page.

Say what it covers

A contract page opens with an empty What it covers section. Click Add coverage to add the first row.

One row is one right, over a set of titles, in a set of territories. One contract can need several rows. For example, one row for print worldwide and another for audio in North America.

The right

  • Right — print, ebook, audio, translation, film and TV, and the rest of your right types.
  • Language — only for a translation right. Leave it on Not a translation right otherwise.

Which titles

Choose one of these:

  • Tick Every title to cover the whole catalog, including titles you add later.
  • Leave it unticked and pick titles in the Titles box.

Pubblish refuses a row that has both, or neither.

Where

Territory mode has three radio buttons. Choose one:

  • Worldwide — the grant covers everywhere. No territory list at all.
  • Worldwide except… — the grant covers everywhere except the territories you tick.
  • Only these territories — the grant covers nothing but the territories you tick.

The territory tick-boxes appear when you choose either of the last two. They disappear on Worldwide. Saving with Worldwide chosen clears every territory you ticked.

Terms

  • Exclusive — nobody else may be granted this right in these territories.
  • May be sold onward — you can grant this right to someone else. A publisher that sells translation rights for an author needs this ticked.
  • Start date and End date — leave both blank to use the contract’s own dates. The coverage table then shows Follows the contract.

Click Add coverage. The row appears in the table under What it covers. The table has the columns Right, Titles, Territories, Terms and Dates.

Each named title in the Titles column links to its rights page. See The Rights page.

Add what it pays

The Money section appears below coverage. It holds the royalty rates this contract pays.

You see this section only if your plan includes Royalties and you are an administrator or the owner. Editors do not see it.

Click Add a royalty rate.

Who and what

  • Payee — who gets paid.
  • A payee is normally a person, listed under their legal name. One author who writes under three pen names has one balance and one payment.
  • A payee is listed under a pen name only when no person is recorded behind it.
  • If the contract names a person who is already a payee, Pubblish chooses them for you.
  • If the person you need is missing from the list, they are not set up to be paid yet. Set them up on the Royalties Payees page.
  • On an empty Payees page, the button is Add payees.
  • Once payees exist, the button reads Add 1 author as payee or Add 3 authors as payees. The number is how many people are not yet set up. The button disappears when everyone is set up.
  • That button asks you to tick pen names. It creates a payee for each real person behind them.
  • Add a payee is always there, to add one by hand.
  • Title — leave this on Everything the contract covers. That gives one rate for the whole contract. Name a title only when that title pays a different rate. The list offers only the titles this contract covers.

The rate

  • Ebook royalty % — a percentage of the net revenue the channel reports. This is also what audio sales are paid at.
  • Print royalty % — a percentage of your own list price.

Both boxes start at your workspace’s default rates. You set those on the Royalties Settings page. At least one box must hold a figure. Pubblish refuses a rate that pays nothing.

When it applies

Effective from and Effective to are both optional. Leave both blank and the rate runs as long as the contract does.

Click Add rate.

Two warnings you might see

The Money section can show two warnings:

  • These rates apply to nothing yet means the contract has rates but no coverage. A rate reaches titles through coverage. Fill in What it covers and the warning goes.
  • Rates on an outward contract are never paid means the contract’s direction is Rights we grant. Royalty runs read inward contracts only. Either the direction is wrong, or the rate does not belong here.

Changing a rate later

Editing a rate does not overwrite it. When you change the percentages, Pubblish starts a new rate from the date you pick. The old rate keeps paying earlier sales. Pubblish pays each sale at the rate that was running on the day of the sale.

One case saves in place instead. It is a rate that meets all three conditions:

  • It has no Effective from date.
  • Its contract has no start date.
  • No issued statement has used it yet.

Changing that rate’s percentages corrects them.

For every other rate, the edit form has one extra box, New rate starts. It is filled in with today’s date. Changing any of these four splits the rate:

  • the ebook percentage
  • the print percentage
  • the payee
  • the title

Editing only the notes or the dates saves in place.

Pubblish refuses a change date in either of these cases:

  • The date would leave a row covering no days.
  • The date falls inside a period you have already issued statements for.

The message names the date you must start on or after.

Only administrators can delete a rate. You cannot delete a rate that an issued statement already used. The row says On issued statements where the delete button would be. You can still edit it, because editing splits the rate instead of erasing it.

What locks once a contract holds a rate

A contract with money on it becomes partly read-only for anyone without the royalties permission.

On the edit form, Direction, Start date and End date are grayed out. A line above them says Locked while this contract holds royalty rates. The name, the other party and the notes stay editable.

Coverage locks the same way. Add coverage and the row Edit and Delete controls disappear. The section says Coverage is locked while this contract holds royalty rates.

An administrator or the owner sees everything unlocked.