Pubmatch: The Next in Publishing

Pubmatch: The Online Publishing Rights Market

A lot of great books remain hidden from the world – due to transactional impediments such as authors not having the right agents working on their behalf or not knowing the basics of rights sale. Besides, publishers who are always on the lookout for fresh talent miss out on pieces by authors who fail to contact them.

Pubmatch, an online book rights network for the international publishing industry, came into existence to solve this very issue by creating an informative portal that matches publishers, authors and agents worldwide. Foreign rights sales and Foreign rights purchases can now take place online.

The Genesis

Founded by Jon Malinowski, the idea of Pubmatch came out of a meeting at the Beijing Book Fair a few years back. As the story goes, a matchmaking session between Chinese and American publishers turned out to be quite frustrating at the event due to lack of a common language. Besides, both the sides were unaware of each other’s product mix. Jon Malinowski, co-founder of the Combined Book Exhibit, thought there was an urgent need of a platform that connected publishers, as well as authors, around the world, effortlessly. The aim was to minimize issues arising out of language and cultural gaps while facilitating the exchange of ideas seamlessly.

Pubmatch, formed as a partnership between Publishers Weekly and The Combined Book Exhibit Family of Companies, provides a wealth of information and services to all the key players in the publishing industry, that is, authors, publishers and literary agents. The platform enables authors to upload their books to an online ‘warehouse’ where they can be reviewed by editors, publishers and agent. Here, a significant advantage exists for authors who can get in touch with publishers directly for smaller transactions where an agent might not want to get involved. Of course, the basic rules still apply – it is important to consider the legal and fiscal outcome of any contract before signing it and individual authors must consult experts before signing on the dotted line.

Something for everyone
The Pubmatch community thrives on constant exchange of thoughts and ideas between various players of the literary world. It offices a plethora of services such as enabling members to add titles they want to draw attention to. This could include authors seeking publishers for their titles, agents working on behalf of authors seeking publishers, as well as, agents and publishers looking to sell book rights overseas.

The platform offers two different plans – a free account that allows authors to upload a limited number of titles (100 in number) and a paid account that allows members to upload up to 5,000 titles for an annual fee of $79.99. Besides, paid members can create up to 5 sub-accounts and a rights catalogue for their books.

Books / Titles include the title′s bibliographic information, include BISAC categories, as well as what rights are available, a cover image, and even actual pages from the book (via uploading a PDF file). If you′re an illustrator or photographer, your books /titles could include books you′ve worked on as an illustrator, or entire “albums” of samples of your work.
The platform also enables member to member messaging wherein members can directly communicate with each other. Of course, users can control their inbox settings to filter contacts you want to stay in touch with.

Another interesting feature on Pubmatch is the Rights Catalog Generation System that lets users create unlimited rights catalogs for their titles. In case you are preparing for a trade fair or an event, you can share these rights catalogs with the members in advance to kick start the process early. Uploading titles is easy breezy through a CSV file template.

In short, Pubmatch offers a unique platform that helps first time authors and new publishing companies find a solid foot in the publishing industry that has, traditionally, been restricted to a handful of players. Besides, it makes content universal by ironing out cultural and lingual differences, enabling seamless flow of ideas globally. You can read more about the services offered by Pubmatch on their website – www.pubmatch.com.