Unfaire Beteiligung an Nebenrechten durch schwache Vertragsverhandlung

Definition

In Australia, authors obtain all economic return solely via contract, so every percentage point in advances, royalties and subsidiary rights splits directly impacts lifetime revenue.[2] Without structured negotiation support, many contracts lock in low ebook or sub‑rights royalties and broad grants of rights, leading to publishers over‑ or under‑compensating relative to market benchmarks.[1][2][7] Given that standard Australian advances for new authors are AUD 3,000–10,000 and typical print royalties are ~10% RRP with ebooks at ~25% net, even a 2–3 percentage point mis‑pricing on a title that sells 5,000–20,000 units or generates meaningful sub‑rights income (audio, film, foreign) can translate to AUD 5,000–20,000 under‑ or over‑payment over the contract term.[4][7] This is revenue leakage when publishers fail to price rights correctly or miss opportunities to exploit retained rights, and for authors when they cede too many rights or accept sub‑par rates due to lack of data.

Why This Matters

The Pitch: Australian 🇦🇺 book publishers and authors collectively forgo an estimated AUD 5,000–20,000 per commercially successful title over the life of the work due to non‑standard subsidiary rights splits and outdated royalty terms. Automation of contract benchmarking, scenario modelling, and revenue‑share calculation eliminates this leakage.

Affected Stakeholders

Publisher finance manager, Rights manager, Editorial director, In‑house legal counsel, Authors and literary agents

Related Business Risks