Exercising Your Rights

Anna Roe, marketing manager, Klopotek North America, says Klopotek’s customers share only a desire to provide better author care, improve their rights management and increase their ability to generate more revenue. “Over the last four years, we have invested several million dollars in expanding the capabilities of the system to embrace all types of publishing and also offer it as a hosted, ASP solution, which significantly reduces the up-front implementation costs,” she says.

When choosing a solution to manage rights and royalties, it’s important to consider the unique nature of publishing, suggests MSGL’s Pelligrini. “Often, with royalties, publishers may be using simple [Microsoft] Excel spreadsheets, and they’re able to run a limited number of reports,” he says. “But when you look at the core of the publishing business, it’s really unlike any other industry. Those software applications are not necessarily applicable … I really believe, for many years, most publishers have been underserved by the software systems they have—specifically in the rights and royalties area.”

Rights and Royalties
Solutions

Here are some of the leading rights and royalties management solutions and services on the market:

Bradbury Phillips
International Ltd.

Solutions: Rights 2000, Authors’ Royalties System

Features: Rights 2000 is a rights-management solution for publishers, packagers and agents, designed to manage details about submissions, contracts and sub-rights monies, as well as provide extensive reporting capabilities.

The Authors’ Royalties System is a standalone system designed to enable publishers to accurately calculate royalties and produce statements for authors, as well as manage detailed information on multiple authors and payees; calculate royalties based on net sales, published price or cost per copy; and manage sub-rights income, author expenses and advance payments.

Publishing Customers Include: Holtzbrinck Publications, Guilford Press, Shambhala Publications
Price: $3,500 to $40,000 for Rights 2000, and $4,500 to $40,000 for Authors’ Royalties System, both dependent upon number of titles and users.