“Contracts in Publishing: A toolkit for authors and publishers” by Brian Wafawarowa and Isobel Dixon for WIPO provides information on copyright-related aspects and contractual options and clauses in the book sector. The EWC contributed to the toolkit within peer reviews to foster the balance and contributes to a mutual understanding between writers and publishers on issues from clauses, payments, transparency and licensing.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) started to develop the non-normative, non-binding contractual toolkit for writers, translators, visual artists and publishers from 2021 on, for providing authors and their professional counterparts with a comprehensive information document on the most essential considerations while negotiating and concluding a contract. Now, in Summer 2024, the toolkit “Contracts in Publishing” reaches its targeted audience of writers, visual artists, translators and publishers in the book sector, especially in, but not limited to, developing countries.

The toolkit stems from the Charter of the WIPO’s Publishers Circle, which was established in the Action Plan of the High Level Regional Conference: “The Publishing Industry in Africa and its Role in Education and Economic Growth”, in Yaoundé on November 2017. The Charter aims to promote the transfer of knowledge, building skills and raising professional standards on the basis of a sound legal framework through partnerships, mentorship, twinning and other modalities, e.g. non-binding toolkits for IP related issues.

From 2022 on, the European Writers’ Council (EWC) and together with European Visual Artists (EVA), the International Authors Forum (IAF), the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), the International Publishers Association (IPA) and the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers (STM), was invited to provide feedback and comments within two intense peer review periods to WIPO and the esteemed authors of the Tool Kit: Mr. Brian Wafawarowa, Chairperson of the Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA), and Ms. Isobel Dixon, South African poet and Head of Books at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency in the UK.

With an open-minded and from EWC’s view also welcomed balanced approach considering the interests of all bilateral parties and related to the range of legal frameworks and markets, the WIPO Toolkit on Contracts in Publishing offers guidance and non-binding advice on publishing and licensing agreements in the book sector, e.g., but not limited, on:

• The publishing value chain
• Licensing and different national IP frameworks (authors’ rights, copyright)
• Responsibilities and duties of authors and publishers
• Contractual clauses (e.g., length; primary and secondary rights; payments, splits, royalties and accounting; reversion rights, time framing, optional clauses …)
• Useful links, annex and literature

To the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Contracts in publishing: A toolkit for authors and publishers (2024). (pdf, 69 pages). ISBN: 978-92-805-3628-7 (print), ISBN: 978-92-805-3629-4 (online), Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Cover: © Getty Images / Shulz, Narvikk Unsplash / Olia Gozha, WIPO Publication No. 2001EN