This article is part of a new monthly column, "Legally Speaking." This installment discusses self-publishing e-books, audio books, and print on demand copies.
The platform won’t likely take any intellectual property rights in your work. They usually only get the right to distribute it online, and of course they take royalties for doing so: For example, Amazon gives authors around 70% royalties and thus takes a much smaller percentage than a traditional publisher. Also, with self-publishing, you don’t have an agent taking a cut, either—so that’s more money in your pocket if the book is successful.
Creating an e-book is much simpler than physical books or audiobooks. You only have to format the text file for your digital platform and create a front cover image. You can do a lot of this work yourself or you might choose to enter into separate contracts with: an illustrator/photographer/designer for the cover; and/or, a freelance editor to help you polish up the text. If you do contract with outside experts, you should make sure those folks don’t take any copyright or other rights to your book, and that your contracts with them don’t restrict what you can do with their work. (For example, don’t limit your use of the cover image in terms of time or format.)
Print on Demand
If you want to make print versions of your self-published books, again there are plenty of platforms to use, like Amazon or Book Baby. (Createspace is now owned by Amazon.) Unlike an e-book, a printed version requires a full jacket design, including a back cover and spine. You may want to enter into a separate contract with a professional designer to help you with that, which will raise some of the issues above about ensuring you have the rights you need in work done by people you hire.
As with e-books, the print on demand service providers won’t give you a chance to negotiate contract terms, so you need to be aware of what you are paying for under the standard contract. Do you get the opportunity to examine page proofs and request changes? Are there any limitations on where physical books can be delivered? Is there a discount for bulk orders if you want to order a box of books to sell at your own author events? While you won’t get a chance to negotiate, you can compare the different services offered by different companies.
Audiobooks
Self-publishing an audiobook may sound daunting, but it is easier to do now than ever before. A number of companies offer production help, and distribution, for self-published audiobooks including Audible (owned by Amazon), Findaway Voices, ListenUP Audiobooks, and Author’s Republic. The Audible ACX webpage is a good resource with demonstration videos and explanations.
While you won’t get a chance to negotiate, you can compare the different services offered by different companies.
Audiobooks are more complex than other digital formats largely because you need to either hire a narrator or self-narrate, raising questions of sound quality and length of audio files (usually spelled out in the contract with the distribution platform). You also need to consider how a narrator will be paid, which can be a royalty share, a flat fee, or a combination of the two. In the United States, the narrator generally doesn’t take any intellectual property rights in the finished product, even if they share royalties. Your contract should make this clear. Additionally, your narration contract should include a provision that you get to hear samples of the audio files and the narrator agrees to a certain amount of re-recording to fix any problems prior to release.
A separate contract with the distribution platform will set out things like the price points at which your audiobook may be sold and the amount of time you’re committing to allowing the service to distribute the book. Audible currently takes a seven-year minimum distribution right, unlike Amazon’s KDP program for e-books, which allows books to be removed by the author with five days’ notice. Audible also sets the prices for self-published audiobooks, rather than leave it to the author. Audible offers different royalty deals: higher royalties (currently 40%) for giving it exclusive distribution of the book, and lower rates (currently 25%) if you distribute on other platforms.
The Bottom Line
Self-publishing takes a lot of work, but also gives an author greater control over the creative and production process. The laws around it are fairly straightforward, but generally not particularly negotiable, so be sure you know what you’re getting into before you click on “I agree.”
Jacqui Lipton is the founder of Raven Quill Literary Agency as well as a consultant on business and legal issues for creative artists. She also teaches law and legal writing at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as several online venues. She writes regular columns on legal and business issues for authors for the SCBWI, Luna Station Quarterly, the Authors Alliance, and Savvy Authors. Her book "Law and Authors: A Legal Handbook for Writers" is forthcoming from University of California Press in the fall of 2020. She is repped by Jane Dystel at DGBLM.
This article is part of a new monthly column, "Legally Speaking." This installment discusses any legal issues you should consider when creating your own author brand online.
This article is part of a new monthly column, "Legally Speaking." This installment discusses how to make sure you won't get in trouble for using other people's work in your writing.
This article is part of a new monthly column, "Legally Speaking." This installment discusses writing about real people without getting into legal trouble.
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