1. Tackling the Unthinkable:
Digitizing the Backlist
 Laura Young Bost, Rights Manager,
University of Texas Press
 Kathleen Kornell, Rights &
Permissions/Award Manager, University of
Illinois Press
 Claire Lewis Evans, Editor for Digital and
Electronic Publishing, University of Alabama
Press

2. Digitizing the Backlist
University of Texas Press’s
Process

3. Things to Consider
 Contracts
 Royalties/rights payments
 Authors
 Where do you start?
 Permissions
 How do you keep track?
 ESTABLISH YOUR RULES BEFORE YOU
START

4. First Things First
 What is the first thing? The first thing is your
AUTHOR CONTRACTS
 All publishing rights, all formats, all media
 Book and related forms
 Aggregated databases and disaggregated
content, chapter sales, short-term loans, pay-
per-view
 Apps, future developments, etc.
 Will you write contract amendments?

5. What Is Next?
 What is the second thing? EBOOK
ROYALTIES / RIGHTS PAYMENTS
 If your new books are in eBook programs, how
do you pay authors? Will you pay backlist
authors the same way/s?
 What is a sale? What is a license?
 Do you pay a per-unit royalty? Do you pay
aggregated content as a sale or as a license?
 Do you set different rates for sales and
licenses?
 Do you set a flat rate for sales and licenses?

6. What Do You Tell Authors?
 What is the third thing? AUTHORS
 Do you send contract amendments or
information letters informing them their book
will be made available in digital formats if you
are not sending contract amendments?
 If so, who will do this?

7. Ah, Permissions…
 What is the fourth thing? PERMISSIONS
 Do the permissions you have for third-party
content allow for digital editions? What about
permissions from years or decades ago?
 If you determine that a permission needs to
be re-cleared, who is going to do that? The
Press or the author? If an additional fee is
asked for, who is going to pay for that?
 If you aren’t sure of the permission, will you
redact content?
 Establish your rules before you start

8. And Then…
 What is the fifth thing? WHERE TO START
ON YOUR BACKLIST
 We started with the books that were currently
in print.
 Then we did a second round of books that
were out of print but that we still held
publishing rights to and that we were bringing
back into print via POD.

9. Keeping Track of Things
 It is absolutely essential to keep track of what
you have checked, approved or rejected, and
what still needs to be checked
 You also should keep track of which eBook
programs receive which titles
 A presswide database is a great tool for this;
if you don’t have one, you probably should!
 Let others at your Press know what you are
doing, especially editors and royalty folks

11. Thank you!
Laura Young Bost
University of Texas Press
lbost@utpress.utexas.edu

12. Digitizing the Backlist
How the University of Illinois Press
Tackled the Unthinkable

13. Where to Begin?
• 2300 titles live in the Google
Search/Partners Program
• Removed those titles which were out of
print, rights reverted, distributed titles, and
acquired reprints for which we wouldn’t
have e-rights
• 1700 titles to check
• Once you have a list of titles to check, you
need volunteers!

14. Volunteers
• 25 staff volunteers
• Shift schedules – 2 two-hours shifts a day
with two to four volunteers per shift,
depending on their availability
• Training sessions – provided an
opportunity to go over the various
contracts they might encounter, clauses,
what permission/contractual issues to look
for, explain the process
• Checklist

15. Our Process
• Ten red contract folders per volunteer for each shift
• Check author/publisher contract with the Press,
territory rights, and existing royalty for digital sales
• If the author/publisher agreement granted the press
full rights, move onto 3rd party permissions
• Post-it notes! (lots of post-it notes)
• Note any permissions with a post-it that might be
problematic – for example; no electronic rights,
print rights only, restrictions to the format/print
run/term, etc.

16. Our Process continued…
• Keep checklist with contract folder
• Place contract folder in boxes labeled
either “approved” (no issues other than
royalty addendum) or “not yet
approved”
• How long? – six weeks to check every
title

17. Keeping Track
• Press-wide database
• If a title is approved, “Yes” is added in the
appropriate e-book field
• If a title has contract/permission issues,
“No” is added along with a short
explanation in the comment field
• Status applies to all e-book vendors
• Approved about 80% of our titles for e-
book

19. • Additional fields for royalty percentage
and keeping track of which vendors
received what files and when
• What material did we redact?
• Fair use and public domain material
• Author information letters and royalty
addendums

20. Thank you!
Kathleen Kornell
Rights & Permissions/Awards
Manager
University of Illinois Press
kkornell@uillinois.edu