Books & rights · Less obvious
Book clubs, large print and special editions
The same text, reset for a different reader — and licensed again.
Large-print houses, book clubs, educational editions, and deluxe reprints are unglamorous and surprisingly durable. They reach readers who never walk into a Waterstones, and they pay a licence fee that does not require you to write another word. If your publisher is not offering these, someone else might.
- Typical pay
- Licence fees typically in the hundreds to low thousands per edition. Educational adoptions, when they happen, can rumble on for years.
- Ceiling
- Modest ceiling
- Speed
- First money in months
- Effort
- Light extra work
- Needs
- Needs a book
How it works
- 01
A specialist publisher licenses the text for a particular format or channel, pays a fee or a royalty, and produces their edition.
- 02
Book clubs buy in bulk at a deep discount; your contract should say how that sale is accounted.
- 03
Educational and large-print licences are often time-limited and territory-limited. They should revert.
How to start
- 01
Check your contract to see who controls these rights. If you do, your agent (or you) can offer them.
- 02
For self-published work, large-print and hardback specials are now realistic via print-on-demand.
- 03
A 'sprayed edge' special on your own shop is a modern version of this very old idea.
Watch out
- 01
Bulk discounts can make a 'bestseller' that pays you almost nothing per copy.
- 02
Do not let a special edition lock up your core edition's pricing.
- 03
School editions sometimes demand cuts. Know what you will not cut.
Large print is not glamorous. It is how a book finds the reader who actually has time to read it. I have always liked rights that pay you for work you have already finished. This is that.