Book or music publishing agreement
A document drawn just for you to your exact requirements. Free discussion before we provide an estimate. Fixed fee for each stage of work.
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Key features
England & Wales
Scotland
- Length:18 pages (4750 words)
- Available in:
Microsoft Word DOCX
Apple Pages
RTF
If the document isn’t right for your circumstances for any reason, just tell us and we’ll refund you in full immediately.
We avoid legal terminology unless necessary. Plain English makes our documents easy to understand, easy to edit and more likely to be accepted.
You don’t need legal knowledge to use our documents. We explain what to edit and how in the guidance notes included at the end of the document.
Email us with questions about editing your document. Use our Lawyer Assist service if you’d like our legal team to check your document will do as you intend.
About this document
This agreement grants a licence to a publisher to reproduce and sell a written work, and provides a means for the author or composer to exploit commercially the created intellectual property in the work.
The work could be of any size, complexity and for any purpose. For example, it could be a book, memoirs, a short story, a music score, a song, a script, or a book to be converted into a script. It could also be a series of works, such as poems or articles or an album of music.
This contract preserves the originator’s rights to sell the same material in different markets, to other publishers, in other media and territories, and for other uses. It preserves moral rights as the author.
The template could be edited by either side. As is, it provides legal protection for both sides in reasonable balance.
For example, it covers subsidiary rights in detail so that the author may receive different levels of royalty for different areas of marketing. Payment terms are also covered in great detail, so as to make clear exactly what will be paid to the author, how and when.
There is also protection for the publisher in several important areas.
Alternatives to this agreement
This agreement contains provisions that are special to the book and music publishing industry. If your created work is not directly in either of those sectors, you may decide instead to consider a more general copyright licence agreement.
For a comprehensive version of the sale agreement consider an IP rights sale agreement, which deals with rights for multiple forms of republication.
Contents
The subjects covered in this agreement include:
- Definitions and interpretation
- Warranties and understandings
- Author’s warranties and representations
- Publishers control of publication and requirement for bibliography
- The licence
- The royalties and payment provisions - in detail
- Subsidiary rights
- Protection of author’s rights
- Dealing with third party infringement of copyright
- Confidentiality
- Indemnities
- Other matters relating to enforcement and other legal issues
Recent reviews
I found Net Lawman by chance after doing a web search for information on ‘publishing rights for books.’ I liked the fact that they offered documents in ‘plain English’ and that they were very reasonably priced. I was also swayed by the refund policy.
I would definitely recommend Net Lawman to others and will be making it my first port of call for documents in the future.
Thank you
Moreover, it was not made clear on the website that this contract was very much biased towards the author. For example, most publishers will have their hands tied when it comes to marketing, promotion and rights management if the author does not transfer copyright to them. We are a publisher and would like to have seen more options available that consider both authors' and publishers' needs.
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Document only
- Comprehensive template covering legal and practical points
- Detailed guidance notes a step-by-step instructions to help you complete your document with confidence.
- Up to date with latest law our lawyers regularly review how new relevant law affects each document in our library
- Written in plain English avoiding legal terminology unless necessary. plain English makes our documents easy to understand, easy to edit and more likely to be accepted
- Support from our legal team email us with questions about editing your document
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- understanding your requirements
- checking that your document will achieve your goal
- reporting on whether your changes comply with the law
- answering your questions about how to word a new clause or achieve an outcome
- checking that your use of defined terms is correct and consistent
- correcting spelling mistakes
- reformatting the document ready to sign
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- A document drawn just for you to your exact requirements
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- fixed fee to draw a document to your initial instructions
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(average document price £30) - Lawyer Assist Service included
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- Discount on Bespoke Drafting10%
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(average document price £30) - Lawyer Assist Service included2
(average price £149) - Get Expert answers fast in your workspace
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- Discount on Bespoke Drafting20%
- Telephone support
- Priority email support
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