Author rights

 The author retains ownership of all the rights to their work.

1. The author licences Filament Publishing Ltd to act as the publisher of the work and to manage such rights on their behalf as may be required to carry out this role. This includes managing all print, electronic, audio and other digital media versions of the work internationally.
2. The author confirms that the entire work is original and does not contain material that might require permission to be included or a licence to use.
3. The author confirms that no material in the book could be considered as libellous or defamatory and will indemnify the publisher should this turn out not to be so.
4. The author confirms that they are the copyright holder and that no rights have already been assigned to other organisations or individuals.
5. The author asserts the right to be identified as such as defined by the Designs and Copyrights Act of 1988 and this information shall be shown on the imprint page of the book along with the copyright symbol beside the author’s name and the date of publication.
6. As there maybe third-party rights (such as illustrations) included in the book, the publisher retains the copyright of the book design and layout. This is separate to the copyright of the words which is held by the author.

Manuscript

8. The author will provide the manuscript in electronic form, preferably as a Microsoft Word document. Apple Pages documents cannot be accepted.
9. The manuscript will have been checked by the author using Grammarly, fully edited and professionally proofread prior to submission to the publisher. All editing and proofreading costs are the responsibility of the author.
10. After the manuscript has been typeset, the publisher will carry out a further light proofread to check for layout and mechanical issues. The publisher will make good any such layout issues at their expense.
11. It is the responsibility of the author to check and accept the book artwork as being correct, free from error and ready for printing. The publisher is not responsible for any errors that may subsequently come to light.  However, the publisher will make good any errors and incorporate them in the next printing.
12. Once the manuscript has been typeset, one hour of changes are included at no charge. Any subsequent editorial changes to the original manuscript requested by the author may be subject to additional costs.
13. All necessary photographs, illustrations and graphics shall be supplied separately to the manuscript as JPEG images at a minimum of 300dpi, and be ready to use.
14. Payment of all third-party licences for library images or other reproduction rights are the responsibility of the author.

Distribution and royalties

15. Filament Publishing Ltd will act as distributor for the book and manage the supply chain using such other third-party distribution and retail partners as may be required to make the title available in the marketplaces selected by the author.
16. The publisher undertakes to actively promote the title to the book trade both before and after publication and to distribute it worldwide, through the book trade and through Amazon to international markets. The author has the opportunity to resource book stock for sale to the book trade. If the author chooses not to do so, book trade orders will be serviced through the book trade print-to-order systems. Printing small quantities in this way is more expensive as each order will have a separate handling charge from the printers. This charge may well exceed the royalty which would otherwise be due on that sale.
17. The net profit on a book sale varies with the sales channel. The royalty percentage is dependent on the value of sales. This is shown on the author’s contract.
18. Author sales from their personal website and events generate a royalty of 40% of the cover price.
19. Books for the author’s own distribution will be sold to the author at a 40% discount.
20. Book royalties are deemed to be inclusive of VAT if applicable.
21. During the Covid pandemic the frequency of royalty payments will be twice per year.
22. In the event that monies for services provided to the author are outstanding, these will be deducted from royalties due to be paid, until the author’s account is clear.
23. If the author is represented by a Literary Agent, all royalty payment and statements are sent direct to the agent.
24. Royalties are independently audited by our accountants, Moorgate & Co. Author royalty statements are uploaded to the author’s private area on the Author Project Management System.
25. The author agreement can be terminated by either party giving six months’ notice in writing of their intention.
26. The cost of licences for the use of library images are the responsibility of the author.
27. The author is expected to maintain a level of awareness for their book on social media. Should awareness of the title reduce and sales drop to below £25 per month, the title will be moved from being an Active title to an Inactive title. Royalties on inactive titles are paid annually.
28. Warehousing for book stock and dispatch costs are charged at cost.
29. Fulfilment services, where the publisher posts out books on behalf of the author, are supplied on the basis of ‘actual postage + £1.20 per package’ to contribute to the cost of packaging and labour.
30. Currently the cost of producing and printing books is zero rated for VAT purposes  Other services may be subject to VAT. The cost of retailing eBooks is subject to VAT at the prevailing rate.
31. Filament Publishing Ltd will issue ISBNs as required for each edition of the title and ensure that full entries are added to the book trade databases. Only ISBNs issued by Filament Publishing Ltd may be used as they are publisher specific.
32. Upon completion of the print ready files, it will be the responsibility of the author to accept these as ready for publication. The publisher will use their best endeavours to avoid any errors but will not be held liable for any that are found after the project has been signed off. Any such errors will be corrected in future printings.
33. All book printing is done by the publisher. The author may not print books themselves.
34. Print-on-Demand Distribution
35. Because your book will have an ISBN issued by your publisher, this will make your book visible on the websites of book shops worldwide. If the author wants to tap into this marketplace, they will need to pay for a quantity of books to service these orders. This is the most cost-effective way to do this. If the author chooses not to do this, these orders will be fulfilled through the book trade print to order service. Because of higher printing cost for this system, plus the short order handling charge and carriage costs, there is insufficient margin for the author’s royalty to be paid from this source for individual orders. An increase in the retail price may be required to bring things back into balance.
36. Low volume Sales. Keeping a book live on the book trade systems costs money. This is calculated at £1 a book on all book sales. This is covered by normal sales activity. However, when a title slows down to a point when sales from all sources are below one book per week, we will notify the author that we are considering changing the status from Active, to Inactive and will seek a meeting with the author to discuss their marketing plans. An inactive title is one which is selling under one book per week.

Website and online facilities

37. Filament Publishing Ltd provide online tools for our authors via our Author Project Management System. This system is provided by a third-party supplier.
38. We recommend that authors always keep a backup of any data or information they choose to upload onto the system as we cannot be held responsible for any damages resulting from a loss of data in the event of a system crash.
39. Access to each author project, and the data it contains, is restricted to only those people that the author chooses to include onto the system. It is password protected and cannot be accessed by anyone else.
40. We take your privacy very seriously and will never share your information with anyone without your expressed permission. We hate spam as well!
41. We treat any information you share with us in full commercial confidence.

If things go wrong

42. If there is an issue with any aspect of our service, we need to know quickly so that something can be done to rectify the matter. Our out of hours number is 07802 211587. We believe that it is not what happens that matters, only what is done about it. We take our responsibilities very seriously and fully understand and respect the needs of our authors.  The email chris@filamentpublishing.com is monitored at regular intervals both in and out of office hours.

Payment

1. Filament Publishing Ltd shall be entitled to charge interest on any outstanding balance owed to the Publisher at the rate of 8% above the base rate of HSBC Bank plc from the date that the invoice became due for payment until the date it is paid in full together with a recovery fee, which shall be charged at the statutory rate, and any associated costs.

About Filament Publishing Ltd

Filament Publishing Ltd is a Limited Company registered in England and founded in 1999. The company number is 3715385.  The registered offices are 14, Croydon Road, Beddington, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 4PA. The VAT number is GB905904231. The managing director is Mr Christopher Day.

Governing Law

Our author agreements and terms of business are governed in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom.

Changes to our Terms of Business

These terms and conditions are subject to change. Filament Publishing Ltd reserves the right to modify these Terms of Service at any time. We do so by posting and drawing attention to the updated terms on our website. Your decision to visit our site and make use of our services after such changes have been made constitutes your formal acceptance of the new Terms of Service.

Therefore, we ask that you check and review Terms of Business for such changes on an occasional basis. Should you not agree to any provision of this Agreement or any changes we make to this Agreement, we ask that you contact us immediately.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about our terms of business, please feel free to contact us at

info@filamentpublishing.com or by calling 0208 688 2598

This document was updated on 1^st August 2021 and remains valid until a further update is issued.

Filament Publishing Ltd of  14, Croydon Road, Beddington, Croydon, Surrey CR0 4PA

Telephone +44(0)20 8688 2598   Email: info@filamentpublishing.com                                                    Website: www.filamentpublishing.com   VAT Number 905904231       Company Number 3715385

Members of The Independent Publishers Guild