Team & Guest Management

Learn how to invite team members and guests to collaborate on your workspace.

Understanding the Difference

Two kinds of people can work in your workspace: team members and guests.

Type Access Best For
Team Members Full workspace access, set by their access level Staff, employees, contractors
Guests Specific titles only Authors, reviewers, freelance editors

Team Members

Team members have access to your entire workspace, set by the access level you give them.

Access levels

There are three access levels. Each gives more than the last. For what counts as editor work and what counts as administrator work, see Access levels: who can do what.

Owner

  • Can do everything an administrator can do, plus add and remove administrators
  • Only one owner per workspace
  • Cannot be removed

Administrator

  • Runs the workspace: settings, team, plan and payments, deleting content, royalties and confidential files
  • Can invite team members
  • Can manage editors, but not the owner or other administrators
  • Cannot cancel the subscription

Editor

  • Can create and edit content: everything to do with titles
  • Takes part in flows fully
  • Cannot delete content
  • Cannot see confidential business files
  • Cannot open full person records
  • Cannot manage the team or settings

Suppose a button or section described in these guides is missing. Your access level does not include it. Ask your workspace owner to change your access level if you need it.

Inviting Team Members

  1. Go to Settings → Team tab.
  2. Enter the email address of the person you want to invite.
  3. Choose their Access level.
  4. Click Send invitation.

The invitee receives an email with a link to join your workspace. Invitations expire after 30 days.

Managing Team Members

From the Team tab, you can:

  • Change access: Choose a new access level in the dropdown next to the team member, then click Change.
  • Remove a team member: Click Remove in their row to take away their access.

Important: Administrators can change or remove editors only. Only the owner can change or remove an administrator. If an administrator clicks Remove on another administrator’s row, Pubblish refuses with a message.

Handing the workspace over

Only the owner can hand the workspace over to someone else.

Make someone else the owner

  1. Go to Settings → Team tab.
  2. Find the section Hand the workspace over near the bottom.
  3. Click Make someone else the owner. Or click Make owner on a member’s row in the Team members table. The page opens with their email address filled in.
  4. Under What happens, read whether you stay on as an administrator or leave. The same section lists any unused account credit you have.
  5. Under Who becomes the owner, enter Their email address. They don’t need a Pubblish account yet.
  6. Click Send the offer.

Pubblish emails the offer to that person. Nothing changes until they accept.

The Team tab then shows the email address the offer went to and the date the offer ends. Click Withdraw the offer so the link no longer works. Sending a new offer replaces the old one.

What the new owner does

  1. Click See the offer in the email.
  2. Sign in. If you have no account, click Create account. Use the email address the offer was sent to.
  3. Choose your Country.
  4. If your country needs one, such as the US or the UK, enter a ZIP or postcode.
  5. Click Accept and take over.

Paddle’s page opens. Add your own card there. Without a card, the next payment fails.

What changes

  • The new owner becomes the owner.
  • The subscription moves to the new owner. The new owner pays from the next payment.
  • Paddle removes the old owner’s card from the subscription.
  • The old owner stays on as an administrator if the plan has room for another team member. If it doesn’t, the old owner leaves the workspace.
  • The new owner can remove an administrator.
  • Any unused account credit the old owner has from an earlier plan change stays with the old owner.
  • A cancellation the old owner already scheduled moves with the subscription.
  • Pubblish emails both people when it’s done.
  • Titles, files, team and settings stay as they are.

When you can’t hand over

You can’t hand the workspace over in these cases:

  • The workspace is on hold or closing.
  • A payment is failing. Click Update payment method on Plan & payments first.

Paddle may still have account credit from a recent plan change. Then Accept and take over is refused. The offer page tells the new owner to try again after the next payment. Nothing changes.

If the owner has died or can’t manage their affairs

Someone with legal authority over the owner’s estate or affairs writes to Pubblish. See Terms of Service, section 12. Support handles it from there.

Team Limits

Your plan, plus any additional team members you pay for, decides how many team members you can have. Waiting invitations count too. The Team tab shows how many you have and how many are left.

Guests

Guests have limited access to specific titles only. They suit:

  • Authors reviewing their book’s progress
  • Freelance editors working on specific titles
  • Beta readers providing feedback
  • External reviewers checking metadata

Guest Access

When you invite a guest, choose their access level:

View Only

Can see title details, editions and metadata. Cannot make any changes.

View & Comment

Can view and leave comments for feedback. Suits beta readers and reviewers.

View, Comment & Complete Tasks

Full guest access. Can take part in flow tasks such as approvals.

Inviting Guests

  1. Go to Settings → Guests tab.
  2. Pick one of your People from Invite one of your People, or type an address in Or Email Address. Use one or the other, not both.
  3. Tick a checkbox for each title they should access.
  4. Choose their access level.
  5. Click Invite.

Guest Features

  • Magic Links: Guests can optionally access via a secure link without needing a password.
  • Title-Specific: Guests only see the titles you’ve granted access to.

Managing Guests

From the Guests tab, you can:

  • Cancel Pending Invitations: Remove invitations that haven’t been accepted.
  • Revoke Access: Remove a guest’s access to all titles.

Guest Limits

Every plan includes unlimited guests.

Security Considerations

  • Review Access Regularly: Periodically check who has access to your workspace.
  • Use the Right Access Level: Don’t give more access than necessary.
  • Remove Departing Team Members: Remove access as soon as someone leaves. Guest access stays open until you revoke it.

Troubleshooting

Invitation Not Received

  1. Check the spam/junk folder.
  2. Verify the email address is correct.
  3. Ask the recipient to check if they already have a Pubblish account with a different email.

Can’t Change Someone’s Access Level

  • Administrators cannot change other administrators or the owner.
  • Only the owner can promote someone to administrator.
  • Contact the owner if you need access changes you can’t make.

Reached the Team Member Limit

Your plan, plus any additional team members you pay for, limits how many team members you can have. Guests are not limited. You can:

  1. Remove team members who no longer need access, or cancel invitations nobody has accepted.
  2. Add an additional team member on the Add-ons page. Only the owner can.
  3. Change to a plan that includes more team members. Only the owner can.