1. Parties
This is a Publishing Agreement between YouWriteOn.com Publishing (“Publisher”) and the author (“Author”) whose details are signified at the end of this Agreement. This agreement relates to the print version only of the book listed at the end of this Agreement, herein referred to as "Work."
2. License to Publish
The Author grants to the Publisher the non-exclusive, worldwide license to publish the Work in print. The Author retains sole and exclusive worldwide copyright and all rights including moral rights to the Work in all formats and editions. The Author can decide if they wish extracts from their Work to be viewed on YouWriteOn.com and any Partner website that the Publisher has entered into agreement with to help assist and facilitate sales of the Author’s Work. YouWriteOn.com is the UK’s most popular site for new writers. The Author also decides if they would like their story extract linked from YouWriteOn, and from any YouWriteOn Partner Website, to major online book retailers to help facilitate sales. An ISBN will be assigned by The Publisher to the Work to enable the Author’s book to be sold by online retailers.
3. Publication
The Author grants to the Publisher the right to store, transmit, use and distribute copies of the Work to facilitate the publication, printing and sales process. This includes to all booksellers and other vendors or Affiliates.
4. Author Rights of Cancellation
This Author may terminate this agreement at any time and for any reason as long as a 30-day e-mail notice is given to the Publisher. Email notification of termination of agreement by the Author should be sent to YouWriteOn@legendpress.co.uk. Lightening Source, our printers, will inform online book retailers to remove the book sale listings within 1 to 2 working days. It typically takes up to three weeks for all online book retailers to remove a book from listing on their sites, these timelines are subject to individual booksellers own timelines for book listing removals. The YouWriteOn.com website enables the Author to remove online extracts straight away from the YouWriteOn.com site at any time that they wish to by clicking on the edit function next to their book title on their My Page on YouWriteOn.com and clicking to remove their extracts and links to online book retailers.
5. Author Warranties
The Author represents and warrants the following to the Publishers: (a) that the Author is the exclusive owner of the Work, and has the legal authority to enter into this agreement and grant publishing rights regarding the Work; (b) this Agreement does not conflict with any other agreement, arrangement or understanding between the Author and any other persons, business or entity; (c) the Author states that the Work as submitted by the Author, and its publication by the Publisher, do not or will not violate or infringe upon any personal or proprietary rights, including copyrights, contract rights, trademark or trade secret rights, publicity rights, or privacy rights of any other persons or entities; (d) that the Work is free of any claims of libel, copyright or trademark infringement, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts, or breach of privacy (d) that the Work (including all submitted artwork) is completely original (or that the Author has license to use such content), is not copyrighted to another party in the public Domain, and has not been published in paperback or electronic form under a contract that would conflict with this Agreement (e) the Author warrants not to enter any agreement with any person, firm or other entity that would conflict with the rights granted to YouWriteOn.com Publishing without first terminating this contract and (f) the Author warrants that the work is not defamatory or obscene, or illegal in nature, and warrants and represents that the Work and material contained within it will not be injurious to any user, reader or other person. YouWriteOn reserves the right to cancel publication and/or distribution of a book without recompense if we believe that any of the above terms have been infringed.
6. Indemnification
The Author agrees to hold the Publisher and its Affiliates harmless against any recovery or penalty arising out of any breach of the above Author Warranties. The Author agree to indemnify YouWriteOn.com and its Affiliates for all claims, losses, liabilities, damages, expenses (including legal fees), awards, and judgments resulting from claims of third parties regarding breach of others copyright by the Author, and regarding ownership, libel, slander, plagiarism, privacy violations, misappropriation, and similar claims arising from publication of the Work. All warranties and indemnification made by the Author in the Agreement will survive termination of this Agreement. Affiliates means owners, shareholders, directors, lawyers, Internet Service providers, advertisers, sponsors, funding bodies, web designers, web hosting agents, affiliated partners, companies or individuals, or any other person or entity that the Publisher extends this contract and the licences herein to in respect of the production, dissemination, transmission, promotion, publication, or distribution of the Work, and the exercising of all rights contained within this Agreement with regard to the Work.
7. Copyright Infringement
If the Author's copyright is infringed, the Publisher may, at its own expense, take legal action to restrain such infringement and seek damages. The Publisher does not, however, guarantee such legal action and is not responsible for taking such action. Provided that the Publisher does not commence action the Author may proceed with legal action for copyright infringement by other parties by the Author’s own choice, and the Author will be solely responsible for legal costs incurred in such an action as well as be solely entitled to any expenses, costs or proceeds recovered from any legal action. If both Publisher and Author participate in a legal action then both parties will share legal costs and divide equally any expenses, costs and proceeds recovered from the legal action.
8. Publicity
The Author agrees that the Publisher has the right to use his/her name and likeness (if provided optionally by the author) for any and all promotional purposes for the purpose of book sales, distribution and publicity. The Publisher also has the full right to use book excerpts, quotes, reviews, cover images, and other book related material for promotional purposes. The author’s opening chapters will be displayed on the YouWriteOn site with a link for readers to buy the book if the author chooses to upload sample chapters. There is no agreement on the part of the Publisher to engage in or fund promotion or marketing expressed or implied by this contract.
9. Timelines to Publish Book
It typically takes between 8 to 10 weeks to publish the Author’s Work and for the Work to be made available on the major online book retail sites. The timelines for books to be listed on major online retail books vary in this period depending on when the online book retailers receive the weekly ‘feed’ of new titles and the online book retailers own processes for listing books. If the Author wishes to make changes to their Work after the Work has been submitted to the Publisher and also been prepared as a Proof by the Publisher, this can usually add up to 1 to 4 weeks to the Publishing Timeline depending on the amount of changes required.
9. Author Royalties
The retail price of the book is always agreed upon by both the Publisher and the Author. The Author shall receive an 60% net royalty on all sales of printed copies of the Work that the Publisher receives. This is a much higher royalty than normal commercial book publishers offer as, with print-on-demand, a book is only printed when a customer orders a copy, saving on publishing costs. For example, costs that would have been incurred we were required to print and hold a stock of books in advance. The 60% royalty will be of the sale proceeds for each copy of the book sold less any bookseller discounts and printing costs for each book. Printing costs are charged per book by Lightning Source -our printers, who are one of the world’s major printers for online books – at 70p for a book cover and 1p per interior page to print a single book. Bookseller discounts are the percentage of the book list price for each copy sold that major online book retailers receive for listing the book for sale on their sites. Bookseller discounts usually range between 25% to 55% of the list price. A higher bookseller discount on a book will lead to greater online availability for the Author’s book as the book discount is the bookseller profit for selling the book. The Publisher and the Author will agree on a bookseller discount to suit the Author and their book. For example, the Author may wish to set a lower bookseller discount, this will mean the Author’s book will be available at less online outlets but the Author will have a higher royalty per individual sale of the book; or the Author may wish to set a higher bookseller discount if they want wider availability, for example a 40% bookseller discount will list the book on most major online retailers. A 25% discount will list a book for sale on less online book retailers, but these will still be major online retailers, such as, currently, Barnes and Noble and Bookwells. Examples of online royalties are displayed below to help guide you. The Author accepts by consenting to this agreement that printing costs and bookseller discounts are subject to publishing industry decisions which YouWriteOn & Legend Press do not have an influence on. For example, book retailers book discount rates and printing costs may change subject to whether online book retailers changes their bookseller discount requirements to list books, or whether Lightning Source changes its printing costs respectively.
The Author may change their bookseller discount at a later time if they wish. For example, if an online book retailer changes their book discount policy for books to feature on their site. The Author needs to be aware that it is the online book retailers that set the policy for the book discount they require for books to be listed on their site, and these may be liable to change. The Author accepts that YouWriteOn and Legend Press are not responsible for the online book discount policies of separate online book retailers. The Author also accepts by consenting to this agreement that printing costs per book may also change in the future. For example, Lightning Source may change its printing costs in the future given market considerations at any particular time.
Royalties will not be provided on copies provided directly to the Author or sold to the Author.
Example of royalties for a 200 page paperback book
Below is an example of how royalties are worked out for a 200 page paperback book with a 40% bookseller discount on the book price. If you would just like your book available on less online book retail outlets, as listed above, you can list a lower discount of 25%, this will mean less online availability for your book but will increase your royalties. Your decision is to decide how widely you want your book to be available weighed up with your preferred royalty for each copy sold. View the price examples below to help you decide your preferred book price choice.
Price Example for book available to order through major online book retailers and the ordering services of most US and UK Book Stores - the example contains a 40% Book Seller Discount to ensure that your book will be distributed by the booksellers.
£7.99 Retail Price
|
Page Count
|
Retail Price
|
Printing Cost per copy of book including covers
(70p for cover plus 1p per page)
|
BookSellers Discount at 40%
(the booksellers fee of 40% of the retail price for listing your book)
|
Royalties per book
(Retail cost minus printing cost and bookseller discount)
|
Your Royalty Per Book 60%
|
Our Royalty Per Book 40%
|
|
200
|
£7.99
|
£2.70
|
£3.20
|
£2.09
|
£1.25
|
£0.84
|
As you can see, the higher you set your book price the higher your profits per copy sold. At the same time, if you set your book price too high then this may put some book customers off buying a book which they may have been keen on at a more marketable price. YouWriteOn believes in setting a reasonable price, including for royalties, writers need to consider what they themselves would reasonably pay for a book when deciding on their book price.
Printing costs are dependent on the amount of pages in the book. The formula for working out royalties, as per the example above, is: Book Retail Price minus book print costs minus bookseller discount equals total royalties. The author receives 60% of total royalties. The Publisher will provide guidance to help the Author when agreeing on a retail price.
If you would just like your book available to buy on less online retailers, though still including major retailers such as Barnes and Noble and Blackwell currently, you can as mentioned list a lower discount of 25%; and as mentioned this will mean less availability for your book but will increase your royalties per copy of your book sold. Your decision is to decide how widely you want your books to be available weighed up with your preferred royalty for each copy sold. View the price example below.
Price Example for book available to order through less online retailers, though including major retailers such as Barnes and Noble and Blackwell currently - this example contains a 25% Book Seller Discount to ensure that your book will be distributed by the booksellers.
£7.99 Retail Price (View US Dollars Example)
|
Page Count
|
Retail Price
|
Printing Cost per copy of book including covers
(70p for cover plus 1p per page)
|
BookSellers Discount at 25%
(the booksellers fee of 25% of the retail price for listing your book)
|
Royalties per book
(Retail cost minus printing cost and bookseller discount)
|
Your Royalty Per Book 60%
|
Our Royalty Per Book 40%
|
|
200
|
£7.99
|
£2.70
|
£2.00
|
£3.29
|
£1.97
|
£1.32
|
We will consult with you so that you may set your preferred retail price to suit your book during the publishing process. The Author’s Work will never be sold at cost price or less without your written agreement.
10. Royalty Payment Periods
The Publisher will pay royalties to Authors at two times throughout the year, if earned, within 60 days of the end of each of the two periods. The periods for payment are 25th May, and 25th November. If the royalty payment due for a single calendar quarter is less than £25 then the money will be carried forward to subsequent quarters until the balance exceeds £25, at which time the publisher will make the appropriate royalty payment to the Author. YouWriteOn Publishing will send the Author a link to an online statement of accounts for sales of the Author's book(s) on a quarterly basis or email the Author the statement of account. Royalties will be made by bank transfer, cheque payments, Google Payments or Paypal (UK) and by cheque or Google Payments or Paypal payments only (US).
11. Book Availability
The Author’s book will be available to order as a Print-On-Demand Book from online book retailers. Print-On-Demand is the publishing process by which a copy of a book is created by the printers only when an order from a customer on an online book retailer is received. Print-On-Demand book Authors typically receive considerably higher royalties than book printed by commercial publishers, this is generally because Print-On-Demand publishers do not need to keep stocks of books. YouWriteOn.com uses the printing service of Lightning Source, the ’s leading Print-On-Demand Printer. The extent of online bookseller distribution depends on how high the Author and Publisher agree to set the bookseller discount as outlined in 10. above.
Books will be delivered to customers according to the delivery policies of individual online book retailers, such as Amazon, WH Smith and Waterstones. Typically, this will be between 3 to 5 working days. Some book retailers, such as Amazon, enable customers to expedite their delivery further.
12. Author Copies
The Author shall receive five free copies of the Work upon publication. If the Author wishes to order additional copies of their own work these will be available at the following discounts listed below from the Publisher.
Authors receive volume discounts calculated on the number of copies they order of their own book. The minimum order which can be made, which will also qualify for a volume discount of 46% off retail price, is 10 copies. The discounts are as follows:
10 - 24 books - 46% off retail price
25 - 49 books - 49% off retail price
50 - 99 books - 53% off retail price
100 - 249 books - 56% off retail price
250 - 499 books - 60% off retail price
500+ books - 64% off retail price
To order additional copies of your book, email youwriteon@legendpress.co.uk. Please include details of your book title and author name, and specify how many copies you wish to order. We will contact you to arrange payment and delivery of your books. All purchases must be paid for in advance, and will include postage and packing costs which we will advise you of before you make payment. Postage costs depend on the individual size of your book.
Note that authors do not receive royalties on copies of their books that they purchase themselves.
It is also important to note that different titles cannot be mixed to receive a higher discount. For example, if an author purchases 50 copies of their book, they are eligible for a 53% discount off the retail price of the book. But if they buy 25 copies of one book and 25 copies of another book, they are eligible for the discount offered for 25 to 49 books for each book. We are able to offer these discounts primarily because of the savings given when a large block of a single title is ordered. This means we cannot split the order between different titles and still provide the same high volume discount.
13. Author Proofs
The Publisher will prepare, and agrees to submit, an electronic proof of the manuscript and its cover to the Author a minimum of 14 days before they are sent to the printers. Additional proofreading copy-editing is available on request.
If editing is involved, other than that due to fault of publisher which will be corrected without charge, i.e. we prepare your book proof and you want to change the story or realise you've made errors, this adds another one to four weeks to the production time and we will charge a fee of £50 for set-up costs and £25 per hour for the extra work. Avoid this extra time and cost by carefully checking your manuscript and making sure you submit it exactly as you want it to appear.
The Author will be required to approve the final proof before the files are sent to the Printer. The Author shall have 14 days to proof their Work. Once the author approves the proof the book will enter production. Once the book has entered production the author will not be able to add further corrections. If the author should spot further changes after the book has entered production that they would like changed, they would need to pay £100 plus £25 per hour for extra work.
The book must be signed off for release by the Author after the Author has approved the proof, and any errors once the release is approved by the Author are the responsibility of the Author. The Author is not charged for any YouWriteOn.com errors that may occur, but is responsible for verifying any YouWriteOn.com errors have been corrected before approving the book proof. The Publisher may make reasonable changes, additions, deletions or condensations to the Work with the written consent of the Author.
14. Author Refunds
If the Publisher has setup the Author's book and the Author decides not to progress prior to the Work being sent to the printers and/or media/selling packs being produced, they will be entitled to a refund of 50% of the fee. If they decide not to progress after the Work has been sent to the printers and/or media/selling packs produced, they will be entitled to a refund of 25% of the fee.
15. Information Provided by Publisher
All details provided by the Publisher in relation to promotion, selling of Work or any aspect of the process and advice given are strictly confidential and must not be disclosed to any third-party in case of unauthorised third-party use.
16. Publisher Transferal or Bankruptcy
The Author understands that the Publisher may at any time sell its business and that all current contracts and licenses would be transferred to the new owner. If the Publisher liquidates its business or is legally judged bankrupt, this Agreement shall be terminated immediately. The Publisher will only be responsible for any unpaid royalties due to the Author.
17. Termination by Publisher
The Publisher may terminate publication of the work and its display on the site immediately without giving notice upon receiving information of an actual or potential breach of copyright or information of any other liability claim relating to the Work. The Publisher shall pay any outstanding royalties to the Author within 60 days of the end of the quarter during which the Publishers stops displaying, publishing or distributing the Work. The Author shall not make a claim, if the book is withdrawn from publication, which is greater than the cost of publishing the book.
18. Publishing Submissions
Publishing submissions of Work are submitted electronically to the web site by email.
19. Submission Payments
The fee for publishing and related services shall be the current fees listed in the publishing section of the website and in this agreement as listed below.
Publishing Package 1 £399 Pounds
Publishing Package 2 £699 Pounds
Publishing Package 3 £899 Pounds
Publishing Package 4 £1,499 Pounds
20. Submission Acceptance
The Publisher reserves the right not to accept a publishing submission upon receipt. If this is the case, the Publisher will refund any Author submission payment. Once a submission has been accepted for publication and production work has commenced, the Publisher shall not be required to refund any submission payments.
21. Title Maintenance
The Author must pay an annual title maintenance fee of £10 ($20 )if the Author wishes to keep the Work listed for sale and distribution with booksellers and distributors. The yearly maintenance fee is based on current charges and administration incurred by the Publisher to display books on bookseller websites and catalogues. The fee is set for 2 years upon signing of this agreement and may change after if title maintenance costs change, and the Author is liable for the fee annually if the Author wishes to continue to have his Work displayed on bookseller catalogues and websites. The author will be informed when the title maintenance fee is due, and if the Author chooses not to pay the title maintenance fee by the due date then the Work will not be displayed on bookseller websites, or, at our sole discretion, the YouWriteOn.com website.
22. Agreement Acceptance
By adding your name and address to this agreement below you state that you have read and agree to all its terms and conditions in this publishing agreement in the same manner as if you had manually signed the agreement. We may ask for, and you consent to provide, a signed, printed copy of the agreement if required.
Your Name:
Your Address:
10. Author Proofs
The Publisher will prepare, and agrees to submit, an electronic proof of the manuscript and its cover to the Author before they are sent to the printers. If editing is involved, i.e. we prepare your book proof and you want to change the story or realise you've made errors, this adds another four to six weeks to the production time and we will charge a fee of £250 for the extra work. Avoid this extra time and cost by carefully checking your manuscript and making sure you submit it exactly as you want it to appear.
The Author will be required to approve the final proof before the files are sent to the Printer. The Author shall have 14 days to proof their Work. Once the author approves the proof the book will enter production. Once the book has entered production the author will not be able to add further corrections. If the author should spot further changes after the book has entered production, they would need to pay for a further proof equal to the cost of their publishing package if they wish to start again.
The book must be signed off for release by the Author after the Author has approved the proof, and any errors once the release is approved by the Author are the responsibility of the Author. The Author is not charged for any YouWriteOn.com errors that may occur, but is responsible for verifying any YouWriteOn.com errors have been corrected before approving the book proof. The Publisher may make reasonable changes, additions, deletions or condensations to the Work with the consent of the Author.
11. Information Provided by Publisher
All details provided by the Publisher in relation to promotion, selling of Work or any aspect of the process and advice given are strictly confidential and must not be disclosed to any third-party.
12. Publisher Transferal or Bankruptcy
The Author understands that the Publisher may at any time sell its business and that all current contracts and licenses would be transferred to the new owner. If the Publisher liquidates its business or is legally judged bankrupt, this Agreement shall be terminated immediately. The Publisher will only be responsible for any unpaid royalties due to the Author.
13. Termination by Publisher
The Publisher may terminate publication of the work and its display on the site immediately without giving notice upon receiving information of an actual or potential breach of copyright or information of any other liability claim relating to the Work. The Publisher shall pay any outstanding royalties to the Author within 60 days of the end of the quarter during which the Publishers stops displaying, publishing or distributing the Work. The Author shall not make a claim, if the book is withdrawn from publication, which is greater than the cost of publishing the book.
14. Royalties
The retail price of the book is always agreed upon by both the Publisher and the Author. The Author shall receive an 60% net royalty on all sales of printed copies of the Work that the Publisher receives. This will be 60% of the sale proceeds for each copy of the book sold less any bookseller discounts and printing costs for each book. Bookseller Discounts are the percentage of the book retail cost for each book that booksellers such as Amazon receive on each copy as their percentage of the sale for listing the book for sale - view our Publishing FAQ on the YouWriteOn site for more details. Royalties will not be provided on copies provided directly to the author or sold to the Author.
The Publisher will pay royalties to Authors at two times throughout the year, if earned, within 60 days of the end of each of the two periods. The periods for payment are 25th May, and 25th November. If the royalty payment due for a single calendar quarter is less than £25 then the money will be carried forward to subsequent quarters until the balance exceeds £25, at which time the publisher will make the appropriate royalty payment to the Author. YouWriteOn Publishing will send the Author a link to an online statement of accounts for sales of the Author's book(s) on a quarterly basis or email the Author the statement of account. Royalties will be made by bank transfer, cheque payments, Google Payments or Paypal (UK) and by cheque or Google Payments or Paypal payments only (U.S.).
15. Publishing Submissions
Publishing submissions of Work are submitted electronically to the web site by email.
16. Submission Payments
The fee for publishing and related services shall be the current fees listed in the publishing section of the website and in this agreement as listed below.
Basic Publishing Package £499 UK Pounds + VAT
Advanced Publishing Package £999 UK Pounds + VAT
Premier Publishing Package £1,749 UK Pounds + VAT
17. Submission Acceptance
The Publisher reserves the right not to accept a publishing submission upon receipt. If this is the case, the Publisher will refund any Author submission payment. Once a submission has been accepted for publication and production work has commenced, the Publisher shall not be required to refund any submission payments.
18. Title Maintenance
The Author must pay an annual title maintenance fee of £10 ($20 U.S.)if the Author wishes to keep the Work listed for sale and distribution with booksellers and distributors. The yearly maintenance fee is based on current charges and administration incurred by the Publisher to display books on bookseller websites and catalogues. The fee is set for 2 years upon signing of this agreement and may change after if title maintenance costs change, and the Author is liable for the fee annually if the Author wishes to continue to have his Work displayed on bookseller catalogues and websites. The author will be informed when the title maintenance fee is due, and if the Author chooses not to pay the title maintenance fee by the due date then the Work will not be displayed on bookseller websites, or, at our sole discretion, the YouWriteOn.com website.
19. Agreement Acceptance
By adding your name and address to this agreement below you state that you have read and agree to all its terms and conditions in this publishing agreement in the same manner as if you had manually signed the agreement. We may ask for, and you consent to provide, a signed, printed copy of the agreement if required.
Your Name:
Your Address:
YouWriteOn