The words on the page

37 terms

• Advance

  Money

  Money paid up front, recouped from future royalties.

  An advance is an unsecured pre-payment of royalties. You keep it even if the book never earns it out, provided you have delivered an acceptable manuscript and the publisher has not cancelled for cause. It is almost always paid in instalments — typically on signature, on delivery/acceptance, and on publication (hardback and/or paperback). It is not a salary, a grant, or a measure of how much the publisher loves the book. It is a bet on sales.

• Recoupment / earn-out

  Money

  Royalties are credited against the advance until it is paid back.

  Every royalty pound (or dollar) the book earns is first used to pay back the advance. Until that happens you receive no further money from that title. After earn-out, royalties are paid to you on the usual accounting cycle. Earn-out is common on modest advances and rare on large ones. Failure to earn out is not a breach, and you do not have to repay the unearned balance.

• Royalty

  Money

  Your share of each copy sold, as a percentage of list price or net receipts.

  A royalty is the author’s contractual share of sales. In trade publishing it is usually a percentage of the recommended retail price (UK) or list price (US) for print, and a percentage of the publisher’s net receipts for ebooks and often audio. Rates escalate as sales pass thresholds. Always ask: percentage of what? A 10% royalty on a £16.99 hardback is very different from 10% of the money the publisher actually received after a 60% trade discount.

• List price / RRP

  Money

  The cover price, before trade discounts.

  List (US) or recommended retail price (UK) is the price printed on the book. A list-price royalty is the traditional, author-friendly way to calculate print royalties because it does not shrink when the publisher discounts heavily to retailers. Guard it. Many contracts try to switch high-discount sales onto a net-receipts basis.

• Net receipts

  Money

  What the publisher actually receives after discounts, returns and sometimes costs.

  Net receipts (or ‘net amount received’) is the money that lands in the publisher’s account from a sale, after the retailer’s discount. A supermarket taking 60% off a £10 paperback leaves £4 of net receipts; 10% of that is 40p, whereas 7.5% of RRP would have been 75p. Read the definition: some contracts deduct freight, VAT, bad debts or even ‘a reasonable allowance for overheads’. Push back on deductions beyond discount and returns.

• High-discount sales

  Money

  Deeply discounted copies that often pay a reduced royalty.

  When a sale is made at a discount above a stated threshold (often 50% or 52.5%), the contract typically switches from a list-price royalty to a smaller percentage of net receipts. This is how supermarket, export, and some online deals are accounted. A fair clause sets the threshold high (55%+), keeps a floor, and does not let the publisher dump the whole print run at high discount. Uncapped high-discount language can hollow out an otherwise decent royalty schedule.

• Reserve against returns

  Money

  Money held back because bookshops can send unsold copies back.

  Trade books are sold sale-or-return. Publishers therefore hold back a percentage of royalties (commonly 15–30% in the first two or three periods) against copies that may come back. A fair clause tapers the reserve and releases it within a stated time. A poor one lets the publisher keep an unspecified reserve indefinitely.

• Escalator

  Money

  Royalty rate that rises after a sales threshold.

  A typical hardback schedule is 10% of RRP on the first 3,000–5,000 copies, 12.5% on the next band, and 15% thereafter. Escalators reward a book that takes off. Watch the thresholds: they should be on that edition, not on lifetime sales of every format combined, and they should not reset when a paperback is published.

• Joint accounting

  Money

  Losses on one book are set against earnings on another.

  If Book Two earns royalties while Book One is unearned, joint accounting lets the publisher keep Book Two’s royalties until Book One’s advance is recouped. It is a transfer of risk from publisher to author and should almost always be struck out, except perhaps on a genuine two-book deal with a single combined advance. Never accept it across a whole option chain or a backlist.

• Remainders

  Money

  Leftover stock sold off cheaply, often at little or no royalty.

  Once a title is winding down, leftover copies may be remaindered. Many contracts pay no royalty if the sale is at or below cost, and a token royalty otherwise. A decent clause gives you first refusal to buy copies at cost, and forbids remaindering within a year or two of publication.

• Grant of rights

  Rights

  The clause that says which rights you are licensing, where, and for how long.

  This is the heart of the contract. You are almost always licensing copyright, not selling it (assignment of copyright is a red flag in a trade novel deal). The grant should name the rights (volume, ebook, audio, serial, and so on), the languages, the territory, and the term. Everything not expressly granted is retained by you. If a right is not listed, the publisher does not have it — unless the drafting is sloppy and says ‘all rights throughout the universe in all media now known or hereafter invented’.

• Licence vs assignment

  Rights

  A licence lets them use the work; an assignment hands over the copyright.

  A trade book deal should be an exclusive licence. Assignment transfers the copyright itself; you would then need the publisher’s permission to use your own work. Assignment is normal in some work-for-hire (certain educational, packager, and ghostwriting jobs) and abnormal in trade fiction and serious non-fiction. If you see ‘hereby assigns all right, title and interest’, stop.

• Term

  Rights

  How long the publisher may exploit the rights.

  Traditional wording is ‘for the full term of copyright’ (your life plus 70 years in the UK and US). That is a long time to be locked in if the book is neglected. A time-limited licence (seven, ten or fifteen years) with a renewal option is more modern and more author-friendly, especially with small presses and for subsidiary rights. Always pair a long term with a real reversion clause.

• Territory

  Rights

  The countries in which the publisher may sell.

  Common shapes: United Kingdom and Commonwealth; United States and Canada; World English language; World all languages. A UK publisher does not automatically deserve the US, and vice versa. World English is convenient for the publisher and can leave a large market unexploited if they have no US distribution. The ‘open market’ (continental Europe and others) is often non-exclusive so UK and US editions can compete.

• Primary rights

  Rights

  The core volume rights: print and usually ebook.

  Primary (or ‘volume’) rights are the ones the publisher needs in order to publish the book: hardcover, paperback, and almost always ebook. Audio used to be subsidiary and is now often treated as primary because publishers have in-house audio programmes. The more you include in the primary grant, the more you should expect in the advance.

• Subsidiary rights

  Rights

  Everything beyond the core edition: translation, serial, film, merchandising, and more.

  Subsidiary rights are licensed onward by the publisher (or by your agent) to third parties. The contract splits the proceeds — a typical agented split is 75–90% to the author on translation and film, 50–75% on cheaper rights such as large print or book club. If you have an agent, many of these are better reserved and sold separately. A publisher who takes rights they cannot sell is sitting on your income.

• Reversion

  Rights

  How and when rights come back to you.

  Because ebooks and print-on-demand never go ‘out of print’ in the old sense, a modern clause must use a sales or income threshold: for example, if fewer than 200 copies are sold or earnings fall below £200 in a royalty year, you may terminate on notice. Without that, a neglected title can be locked up for the term of copyright. Reversion should be of the grant, not merely of a format, and should survive as to unsold licences already in place.

• Audio rights

  Rights

  The right to make or license an audiobook.

  Audio is one of the most valuable rights of the last decade. If the publisher has a serious audio programme and will produce within a set time, licensing it can be sensible — at 25% of net for publisher-produced audio, or 50–80% of proceeds if they sublicense. If they merely want to warehouse the right, reserve it. Put in a use-it-or-lose-it: audio reverts if no edition is issued within 12–18 months of print publication.

• Translation rights

  Rights

  The right to license the book in other languages.

  Unless you are selling world rights to a house with a real foreign-rights team, translation is often better reserved and sold by your agent at fairs (Frankfurt, London, Bologna). If the publisher takes them, the author’s share of proceeds should be 75–80%, with a time limit after which unsold languages revert. First serial in translation is sometimes treated separately.

• Dramatic / film / TV rights

  Rights

  Stage, film, television, and usually radio dramatisation.

  These are rarely exploited well by a book publisher. The author (via an agent, often a specialist co-agent) should usually retain them. If they are included, the author’s share should be 90% or more, and the publisher should not have approval over deals. Beware ‘all dramatic rights in all media now known or hereafter invented’, which can sweep in podcasts, interactive, and games.

• Serial rights

  Rights

  Extracts in newspapers and magazines, before or after publication.

  First serial (pre-publication extracts) can be worth real money and publicity; second serial is after publication. A typical split is 75–90% to the author. First serial is often reserved by the agent because a well-placed extract is a marketing event as much as a rights sale.

• Merchandising & commercial tie-ins

  Rights

  Products based on characters, titles, or settings.

  Relevant mainly for children’s, YA, and brandable non-fiction. Publishers sometimes take these as a matter of habit. If your characters are not about to appear on a lunchbox, retaining them costs the publisher nothing and keeps an unexpected windfall with you.

• AI / machine-learning clause

  Rights

  Whether the publisher may use the work to train AI systems.

  Since 2023 this has become a live clause. A fair position: the publisher may use automated tools internally to edit, proof, index, or market the book, but may not sublicense the text for foundation-model training, and may not generate competing editions by AI, without a separate written agreement and a share of proceeds. A grab of ‘all machine learning and artificial intelligence rights in perpetuity’ is a red flag.

• Moral rights

  Rights

  UK right of paternity (to be named) and integrity (against distortion).

  In the UK, moral rights exist alongside copyright. Contracts often ask you to waive them so the publisher can abridge, adapt, and not credit you in every context. A complete waiver is heavier than a trade novel needs. Prefer asserting the right of paternity (your name on the book) and limiting any waiver to specified uses such as anthologies of a set length.

• Delivery & acceptance

  Obligations

  You deliver a manuscript; they accept it as satisfactory.

  The contract will set a delivery date and a standard — usually ‘complete and satisfactory to the publisher’ or ‘of a quality similar to the proposal’. Subjective acceptance is a lever: if they can reject on whim, they can also demand the advance back. Tighten it to ‘not reasonably satisfactory’, give a chance to revise, and make the advance non-returnable once a book has been accepted. Late delivery can be a termination right, so date the clause honestly.

• Warranty & indemnity

  Obligations

  You promise the book is yours and lawful; you cover them if that is wrong.

  You warrant that you own the work, it is original, it does not infringe, and (for non-fiction) that facts have been checked to a reasonable standard. The indemnity is the expensive twin: you pay their losses if a warranty is breached. Cap it where you can, exclude publisher-instructed changes, and make sure they cannot settle a claim without your consent. Libel insurance is a conversation for memoir and investigative non-fiction.

• Option clause

  Obligations

  The publisher’s first look at your next book.

  An option is not an obligation to buy, and it should not freeze your career. A fair option is limited to your next full-length work in the same genre, on terms to be agreed, with a short exclusive consideration period (30–45 days after delivery of a proposal or manuscript) and no matching right that lets them sit on a better offer. Strike options on ‘your next two books’ and options that apply the same terms as this contract.

• Non-compete

  Obligations

  A ban on publishing something that might hurt this book’s sales.

  Overbroad non-competes can stop you writing in your own field. Limit them: no competing work on the same subject, for a stated period, that would reasonably interfere with sales of this book. A clause that forbids ‘any work of fiction’ or ‘any book on history’ for the term of copyright is not acceptable. Series authors need an explicit carve-out for other books in the series if they are with the same house.

• Publisher’s publication duty

  Obligations

  They must actually publish, on a timetable.

  The publisher should undertake to publish within a set period (often 12–24 months from acceptance) in a form of their choosing. If they miss it, rights should revert and any unpaid instalments of the advance should be due — or at least the grant should terminate. ‘Best endeavours to publish’ without a long-stop date is a soft obligation.

• Consultation (cover, title, copy)

  Obligations

  Whether you are shown the jacket, title, and blurb.

  Authors almost never get approval of cover or title in a standard trade deal; they get ‘consultation’ or ‘meaningful consultation’. That means they show you and listen, then decide. Approval is a point of leverage for illustrated books, brands, and authors with a track record. Ask at least to see the jacket before it is billed, and to be consulted on the title if they want to change it.

• Accounting & audit

  Process

  How often they report sales, and your right to check.

  Twice-yearly accounts remain common (periods to 30 June and 31 December, paid 3–4 months later). Some houses now account twice a year but report more frequently. You should have a right to audit at your expense, with the publisher paying if the underpayment exceeds a threshold (5–10%). Pass-through of substantial sub-licence income (e.g. over £1,000) within 30 days is a fair extra.

• Boilerplate

  Process

  The standard legal clauses at the back of the contract.

  Notices, governing law, entire agreement, force majeure, assignment by the publisher (often to any successor), and severance. Boilerplate is not harmless. Governing law should be yours or a major publishing jurisdiction. Assignment by the publisher should not dump you with a house you would never have signed with without a chance to terminate if they cease to publish in your field. Force majeure should not last forever.

• Hybrid / vanity publishing

  Process

  You pay to be published, or share costs in a way that reverses the risk.

  In traditional publishing, money flows to the author. If a ‘publisher’ asks for a fee, requires you to buy copies, or makes your royalties contingent on a marketing package you must purchase, you are the customer, not the talent. Some genuine assisted-publishing services are clear about that. Trouble starts when the contract still grabs exclusive rights for the term of copyright. Pay for a service if you want one; do not pay and also hand over the rights.

• Work for hire

  Process

  You are paid a fee; the commissioner owns the copyright.

  Common in packager, some educational, tie-in, and ghostwriting work. The fee should reflect that you will never see a royalty. Do not sign work-for-hire language in a trade novel contract that is otherwise royalty-based.

• Agent of record

  Agents

  The agent who sold the deal, entitled to commission on that contract.

  Even if you later change agents, the selling agent is usually owed commission for the life of that contract (and sometimes on sequels sold under its option). This is why leaving an agent is legally simple and commercially tangled. New work can go to a new agent; old contracts generally stay put.

• Agent’s commission

  Agents

  Typically 15% on domestic sales, 20% on foreign and some other rights.

  UK and US literary agents almost always work on commission, with no reading fee. 15% of what you receive from UK/US volume deals is standard; 20% is common where a sub-agent or co-agent is involved (translation, US if a UK agent uses a co-agent, and sometimes film). Commission is deducted before you are paid. A good agent earns it in the advance, the royalty schedule, the rights reserved, and the clauses that are not in the first draft.

• Sub-agent / co-agent

  Agents

  A specialist who sells a reserved right (US, translation, film) for a split of commission.

  A UK agent may use a US co-agent, a film/TV agent, and a network of foreign sub-agents. You do not pay twice on top of the headline rate: the 20% foreign commission is shared between your agent and the sub-agent. This is one reason reserved rights in an agented deal often outperform a publisher’s 50/50 sub-rights machine.