Publishing Perspectives reports on ‘Instant Rights’ Transactions, and Molly Brave shouts “Hurrah!”
One news writer I particularly enjoy reading is Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. Prior to this he was Associate Editor for The FutureBook, a channel at The Bookseller focused on digital publishing. Anderson has also worked with CNN International, CNN.com, CNN USA, the Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, and other media. I trust that he has his finger on the pulse of this brave new world of independent publishing in which we find ourselves.
I may well not be the only independent publisher shouting a quiet "Hurrah!" as I read Porter's feature article today. He writes, "Tom Cox of IPR License says that Instant Rights frees up valuable time among publishers’ rights department staffers, who can place automated ‘Buy Rights’ transactional buttons anywhere online."
Why "Hurrah?" My tiny publishing company has no rights department staff, or, rather, that would be me. You see, I was told years ago, by news reporter Marjorie North, that I have vision. Her perception gave me insight into how I work. I see a big picture. I build a foundation that will support growth opportunities of currently unknown dimensions. Will Molly Brave have a media product for which another company might wish to purchase, say, foreign film rights? Certainly. Our preschool screenplay, Through The Screen Door, could easily be a series pilot, with its international and timely subjects of very young children and nature.
I find it somewhat disconcerting, when filling out information forms, to follow the instruction to "Please select one" of the following job roles:
- Business Management
- Creative Services: Copy/Design/PR
- Database/Audience Development Management
- Editorial Management
- Fulfillment/Distribution Management
- IT/E-Commerce Management/Web Development
- Marketing/Sales Management
- Production/Manufacturing Management
Seriously? Just one? And let's add Publishers' Rights to the list. But wait! Cinderella's fairy godmother said, "Impossible things are happening every day!" Read on, and share with me the pride in the ingenuity of a generation of upcoming professionals who are making the "impossible" possible.
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Contracts and Invoices Generated and Stored
Some nine months in the making, IPR License‘new Instant Rights introduces today (June 12) a new level of transactional capability for rights sellers and buyers, providing “Buy Rights” buttons that can be placed on any website or in online catalogs, rights guides, and emails.
In the field of literary rights platforms, this singular new offering is meant to let publishers’ rights departments free up their staffers’ time to focus on the highest-value deals, while Instant Rights handles the low-value and/or backlist transactions.
“We had some discussions with our publishers,” says Tom Cox, IPR’s development director, “and they told us that as good as the platform is for discoverability, it would be great if we could make it more transactional too.
“The way we were set up before, the rights buyer would come along, find some rights they’d like to buy, and that would then turn into negotiations. What Instant Rights does is make the offer highly configurable for the rights seller. And it makes the actual process for the rights buyer such that they can go there and see a price, the price that the publisher is willing to sell the rights for, in a particular territory and in a particular language.”
In this demonstration page from IPR License’s Instant Rights program, you can see a title’s “Buy Rights” button circled in red, upper right. Image: IPR License
Indeed, the rights buyer anywhere in the world can go ahead and actually purchase the rights online, following approval by the rights seller. The system is integrated with the e-commerce Stripe software and with VAT calculation so that if everything qualifies, the buyer can simply check out with the purchase of the rights.
If the publisher has the manuscript ready, the buyer can download it on the spot.
‘Under the Rights Owners’ Control’
Publishers selling rights can decide which types of rights deals are handled automatically by Instant Rights, and which inquiries will be put through directly to their rights team. Click here to read the entire article.