Configuring, Recording, and Disbursing Subsidiary Rights
PubGizmo can handle Subsidiary Rights on Contracts, allowing you to collect and record rights payments as they come in. It will then calculate and add amounts due, based on the rate specified on each Contract, for those rights on the next Royalty Statement.
Templates for Subsidiary Rights
Before you can create a Rights clause on a Contract, and before you can record a Rights Sale, you need to define all the types of rights your press handles. Add and edit the available options in Admin > Subsidiary Rights.
Your setup comes pre-configured with a set of common Subsidiary Rights. Edit this list to match your press's standard set, those that you will want to record on Contracts and as sales.
Rights Names
Use whatever terminology you like for the Rights Names; the out-of-the-box names when you start using PubGizmo are suggestions only. If you change a name in Admin, the change will be applied system-wide. For example, if you change "Film" to "Film & TV," all Contracts that showed "Film" will instantly update to display as "Film & TV."
Keep Names Short
While there is technically no limit to the length of a Rights Name, keep them short, otherwise they will get cut off when displayed on screens and in documents, such as Royalty Statements. Use abbreviations to keep names short.
Don't Include "Rights" in the Name
Do not include the word "Rights" in the name; there's no need, as these are all, by definition, "rights," and adding that suffix may make the name unnecessarily long. Instead of "Film Rights," just call it "Film."
Template Rate
The rate, in percent, is optional, and serves as a template rate only; if you fill in an amount in Admin, that amount will automatically be applied when you create a new Rights record on a Contract. This is handy if you almost always apply, for example, a 50% rate to Permissions. When you generate the Permissions right on a new Contract, 50% will be filled in; for cases where you use a different rate, you can edit that directly in the Rights portal on the Contract (see below).
Unlimited Rights Options
There is no limit to the number Rights templates you can create, but be careful not to generate redundancies and overlap, or there may be confusion as to which right to select. You must use the same right on the Contract record and on Rights Sold on the Title record (see below) for the amount to be accurately computed on the Royalty Statement.
The Publishing Right
The Publishing right cannot be changed or removed, either as a template or on a Contract, because the Contract itself, with its clauses and rates, covers that right, i.e., a contract handles Publishing Rights. It is added automatically to all Contracts, so you can configure any special conditions around publishing, e.g., if you want to specify an expiry date (see below).
Configuring on Contracts
On the Contract screen, click the green plus at the upper-right of the Rights portal. You'll see a list of the Subsidiary Rights configured in Admin. Select the item you want, and a new line will appear in the portal, with the template rate from the Admin portal auto-filled. You can edit the rate to match the amount that applies for this Contract.
Rights Options
Note that at present, only columns in italics affect the actual payout to the contractee; the rest are informational only, but may in future be used to effect more precise control over the how rights are tracked:
- Right Name: the right you selected when creating the Rights record.
- Group/Edition Type/ISBN: will autofill as "All," meaning that the Right applies to all editions, but you can pinpoint which editions the right covers.
- %: the rate the right pays out to the contractee, for example, if it is set for 50%, the contractee will be paid 50% of the total amount collected during the royalty period for this rights sale.
- Countries – Included: countries of sale for which this right is included.
- Countries – Excluded: countries of sale for which this right is excluded.
- Languages – Included: languages for which this right is included.
- Languages – Excluded: languages for which this right is excluded.
- Status: whether your press holds the right, or has sold it. Defaults to "Held," which means you have reserved this right, but not yet sold it.
- Held By: who has been granted and holds this particular right; if Status = "Held", the name of your press appears here, as you are the holder of that right; if the right has been set to Sold, you can enter the name of the Organization to which the right was sold.
- Expires: if there is a time limit on the Status of this right, set the expiry date for that status.
- Renewable: if you have set an expiry date for the right, you can check this box if the right is renewable.
- Pencil icon: click to open a popover into which you can enter a note about this Right. If there is a note stored, the pencil will turn blue.
Recording a Rights Sale for a Title
When you receive payment for a rights sale, you record it on the Title record, in the Rights Sold tab.
To record a sale:
- Click the green plus at the upper-right of the Rights Sold portal. Popover will open.
- Select or input Sale Date (see important info, below).
- Select the name of the Right.
- Select the publication or organization that purchased the right. You can select an existing Org record from the list, or create a new record. If you create a new one, you will be given the option to create a full Organization record.
- Enter Details (optional).
- Enter the full Amount of the sale – this is the amount your press has collected, not the amount to be disbursed to the contractee (which is computed using the rate, see below).
How a Rights Amount is Computed on the Royalty Statement
Which Statement/Royalty Period Will Include the Sale
Just as the sales date of a book determines within which royalty period a sale should be attributed, and on which Royalty Statement that sales will appear and contribute to the royalty amount, the right's Sale Date determines which Royalty Statement will include the computed amount for the rights sale.
For example, if your press uses a calendar Royalty Period (1 January – 31 December), any rights sale that occurs during that period will apply to the Royalty Statement that covers that period. So if the rights sale occurred on 1 July 2025, that sale will appear on the Royalty Statement that covers 1 January 2025 – 31 December 2025, since July 1st falls within that period.
How the Amount on the Statement is Calculated
PubGizmo takes the total amount of the sale and multiplies it by the rate on the Contract.
Example
If the sale Amount for the Film & TV right is $1000, and on the Contract the Film & TV right is 75%, an amount of $1000 * 75% = $750.00 will be included on the Royalty Statement.
If multiple Rights Sales have occurred for a specific right, e.g., if there were three Permissions rights sales during the royalty period, that amount will be totalled and multiplied by the rate.
An accounting of all the Rights sales, the amount collected, and the percentage/amount, appears at the bottom-left of the relevant Royalty Statement.
Limitations
PubGizmo currently allows for one rights clause per Contract, and the amount applies to all contractees included on that Contract.
The amount of both the royalty and rights sales are disbursed to each contractee according to their share, as defined in the Share column of the Contractees portal at the upper-left of the Contract record.
Example
A single Contract includes two contractees, with their share of the Contract:
- Brian: 75%
- Kilgour: 25%
If, per the previous example, $1000 is collected for Film & TV rights, and the Contract specifies a rate of 75% for that right, the payout is $750, and will be distributed according to the share amount of each contractee:
- Brian: 75% of $750 = $562.50
- Kilgour: 25% of $750 = $187.50
The limitation, in other words, is that outside of the contractee share amount, there isn't a way to specify a different right rate per contractee.
This limitation does not exist for individual contractees, on separate Contracts, since each includes its own Rights portal, where differing rates can be defined. For example, if the author and translator each have their own contract, they can each include their own rights rates.
Tip
With multiple Contracts on a Title, it can be difficult to determine how much to allocate to each Contract, especially if the rates differ among those contractees. Consider it not from the amount your press is paying out, but how much your press in retaining. If you pay 50% or Permissions, you are keeping 50%. The other 50% the other half of the "pie," is then divided among the contractees.
Caution
When allocating rights to multiple contractees, be careful not to allocate more than 100%. That is, the total rate of a specific right on all the Title's Contracts should not exceed 100%.
If you allocate more than 100%, you will be paying out to contractees more than you have collected.