What makes a great publishing business? Bestselling books is one obvious answer. But what truly set the best publishers apart are their foundations: the robust infrastructure and smooth workflows that allow great content to be created and sold. Especially at a time when the publishing industry has been significantly disrupted by the coronavirus emergency, efficient systems can make all the difference between success and failure.

Royalties are a key element of these foundations. Efficient and timely royalty management helps to create a professional publishing business that becomes valued by authors, operates in a cost-effective manner, and is able to plan for the future with confidence. This is why we suggest you automate your royalties using royalty management software.

Handled badly, royalties can be a major drain on a business’ profitability and reputation. Manual management in lieu of software management absorbs hours of time and creates huge frustrations, pulling staff away from more productive and profitable tasks. It can also leave royalty calculations dangerously open to human error, leading to either overpayment or underpayment of monies that are due to authors.

Both of these consequences carry significant risk for a business. Pay out too much and profit is impaired, but pay too little and reputation among authors will be badly damaged. Either way, correcting errors soaks up more time and effort and creates undue stress. In a worst-case scenario, they might lay a business open to legal action.

Word of mouth spreads fast in this industry. A publisher that is prone to royalty errors risks incurring a poor image in authors’ communities, and leaves them less motivated to create and promote top content. Negative impressions of publishers can stick, which might make it harder to retain or attract the caliber of writers they need. Your authors will trust you even more if they know you have high-quality royalty management software tracking their royalties.

Another major impact of inefficient royalty management lies in strategic planning. Poor quality royalty data and low visibility of monies that are owed to authors can compromise a publisher’s ability to manage cashflow and forecast accurately. But royalty management systems that generate accurate, timely data can provide publishers with actionable sales insights, and help them make better decisions on commissioning, marketing and much more.

To some extent, publishing is a game of risk: of trying to predict which books will succeed, and of reducing costly errors and wasted resources in order to give them the best chance of success. And in turbulent times like these, risk is magnified. Because MetaComet’s solutions are tailored to the unique demands of publishing, we know where and how we can help you reduce that risk. Contact our team to learn how we can help you establish the strong foundations using royalty management software that every business needs to remain successful and grow.