Getting Published or E-published/eBook Licensing Options

Thank you for making yourself available to answer questions from the AllExpert community.

I sell educational eBooks through a number of my websites to help aspiring professional pass a credentialed exam.

Recently, I was contacted by an agency that would like to repurpose, sell or licence one of my eBooks to provide to its clients. I will be chatting with them soon and wanted to have a list of possible license options available to review. This is my list so far (in order of what might have the best compensation potential):
- a yearly licence fee to provide the eBook to its students (up to a maximum number of students)
- affiliate commission for the agency for redirecting the clients to my website where a sale is made
- a discount code for its clients
- any others????

I look forward to your creative ideas about getting my product in the hands of these new clients that will work for both me and the agency.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Yours sincerely,

Gavin

AnswerGavin -- Frankly, this is a specialized situation that's a bit beyond my expertise. Given that, my only remarks are that you may want to negotiate for royalties per sale rather than a license fee, if they're going to repackage and sell them. The standard royalty paid by mainstream publishers is 25% of net for e-books, but as your own publisher, you'd probably want at least 50% or better. If they're directing clients to you, on the other hand, you'll just have to negotiate with them on an affiliate commission. Sorry I can't offer more advice, but this is one of those unique situations where there's not really a standard way to proceed, and everything depends on negotiations between the two parties.

Expertise

I am an independent self-publisher who sold three projects to major New York houses before starting my own company. I provide editorial services to a major literary agency in Manhattan and work regularly with authors at all levels of expertise. I can answer questions like these: What does "independent publishing" mean? Should I publish myself or use a service like XLibris? What is "print on demand" publishing? How do I publish myself on the Web? What are the best resources for learning about publishing? How do I find a literary agent? What are my chances of getting published by a major New York firm?