IBPA Publishing University 2026

Structuring royalty-based Publisher-Author agreements from a small press POV: Why new and future publishers should develop an in-depth understanding of contract clauses

Strong contracts form the cornerstone of a publishing company looking to grow over the long term. In this session for new and future publishers, we will walk participants through our experience of drafting our publishing contract, with examples to demonstrate why contracts are a vital piece of a publisher’s work, and what small presses should keep in mind when building out their own agreements. Our goal through this session is for attendees to gather a thorough understanding of key publishing contract clauses and their various implications, including a contract checklist to use as a reference when working with their attorney. This is from the perspective of a small traditional children’s press with 30 books (picture, middle grade, and young adult) in their catalog.

The audio file is attached. Transcript will be added in early June.