FoundingAuthors
Ten writers. Better terms, locked for the life of the book.
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We know what we're asking
Sterling Letter Press is new. We began with the founder's own titles — six books that proved the editorial standard we intend to hold. We are now opening the list to other writers for the first time.
Signing with a press that has not yet published you is a real risk, and no amount of language about vision changes that. So rather than ask you to take it on faith, we are putting the terms in writing.
The first ten authors we publish become Founding Authors, and their terms are better than our standard terms for the life of their books. Those terms are not a promise on a webpage. They are Exhibit B to the publishing agreement, and Exhibit B controls wherever it conflicts with anything else in the contract.
Standard terms, and what Founding Authors get instead
| Term | Standard | Founding Author |
|---|---|---|
| Hardcover royalty | 10% of net | 12.5% of net§ B.2 |
| Trade paperback royalty | 7.5% of net | 10% of net |
| Mass-market royalty | 6% of net | 10% of net |
| E-book royalty | 25% of net | 40% of net |
| Audiobook royalty | 10% of net | 35% of net |
| Foreign, translation & territorial share | 50% to you | 65% to you§ B.4 |
| Term of rights | Full term of copyright | 20 years, then yours§ B.5 |
| Reversion threshold | 25 copies / period | 50 copies / period§ B.5 |
| Option on your next book | Yes, with a right to match | None at all§ B.6 |
| Cover & title | Our decision, after consulting you | Your written approval§ B.7 |
| Author copies | 5 of the first edition | 5 of each print edition§ B.8 |
| Your purchase price | Our Amazon cost + 10% + shipping | Set by Amazon KDP |
| Marketing | At our discretion | At our discretion, with a written accounting§ B.9 |
| If the press fails | — | Rights revert automatically§ B.11 |
| Film, TV & merchandising | We license · 50/50 | We license · 50/50 |
| Costs charged to you | In limited cases — see standard terms | Never§ B.13 |
What each of those actually means
Higher rates, locked for the life of the book
A quarter more on hardcover, a third more on trade paperback, sixty percent more on e-books, and three and a half times the standard rate on audio. And the rates never go down: not if we change our standard terms, not if the press changes ownership or control, not if the agreement is assigned. The rate lock survives all of it.§ B.2, § B.3
Your rights back in twenty years
Our standard agreement runs for the full term of copyright — your life plus seventy years. Yours runs twenty years from publication, renewable only if we both agree in writing, and then every right returns to you automatically.§ B.5
A bigger share of foreign and territorial deals
When we license translation rights, or British Commonwealth and other territorial rights, you receive 65% of the proceeds rather than the standard 50%. Other subsidiary rights, including film, television and merchandising, are handled on the standard terms.§ B.4, § 11
No option on your next book
You are free to take your next manuscript anywhere, to anyone, on any terms, without telling us first. We would like to earn it instead.§ B.6
Approval over your cover and your title
Not consultation. Your written approval, before anything goes to print. If we genuinely can't agree, we may decline to publish rather than publish something you haven't approved.§ B.7
A written accounting of marketing
We set the marketing budget, and the rider doesn't pretend otherwise. What it does guarantee is a written accounting of what we actually spent on your book within fourteen months of publication.§ B.9
If we fail, you are not trapped
If the press ceases operations, becomes insolvent, or misses two royalty statements in a row and doesn't put it right within thirty days of your notice, every right returns to you automatically and at no cost — along with the production files, cover art and ISBNs for your book.§ B.11
Recognised as a Founding Author
We may include a Founding Authors acknowledgment naming you in each of your books we publish, and we keep a page on this site recording the Founding Authors in the order they joined.§ B.10
A say in where the list goes
An annual conversation about what we acquire next. Advisory, not binding — we won't pretend otherwise in the contract.§ B.12
Never a cost to you
Whatever the standard agreement says elsewhere, you are never required to pay us anything, or to buy copies or services, in connection with publishing your book.§ B.13
We never charge you anything
No reading fee. No submission fee. No contribution to production costs. No requirement to buy copies of your own book, or any service from us.
This is not a policy we could quietly change. It is § B.13 of your rider, it applies notwithstanding anything else in the agreement, and the agreement can only be amended in a writing you have signed.
If any publisher asks you for money to publish your book, that is not a publisher. It is a printer with a marketing department.
We publish through Kindle Direct Publishing, which is how a press this size can publish your book without asking you to pay for it. Your book is printed on demand and sold through Amazon. We also don't require an agent. Submit directly. We read everything, and we reply to every complete submission, even when the answer is no.
What we cannot offer you
We are a small press. We cannot offer you a large advance, a national tour, or a table at the front of a bookstore chain. We have not yet published anyone but the founder, which means you would be taking a chance on us.
What we can offer is that your book will be read closely, edited seriously, published properly, and that every term above will still be true in twenty years — because it is written down, and because you will have signed it too.
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