Bonnier Rights Finland: a CRM for selling translation rights with every contract and deadline under control

The challenge

The agency sells rights to books by authors from several publishers worldwide, directly in some markets and through sub-agents in others.

• Several publishers, one agency. The agency represents authors from several publishers. Book and rights data must live in one place, not in separate spreadsheets per publisher.
• Rights are sold language by language. Every language and territory is a separate contract with its own terms and deadline. One title can carry many active contracts.
• Directly and through sub-agents. Some markets are covered directly, others through sub-agents. Every contract must show which agent made the deal.
• Expiries can’t go unnoticed. When a licence expires, the rights revert to the agency and can be sold again. A missed deadline means a missed opportunity.

The solution

We used the CRM foundation built for Ahlbäck Agency and turned it into Bonnier Rights’ internal working tool.

Managing books and rights

In the CRM, every title holds its author, editions and print runs, and all publishing rights sold. Each contract records when it was signed, in which country, through which agent and when it expires.

Automation handles the routine work: it updates contract and rights statuses, sends timely reminders for expiring contracts, checks for overlaps such as whether rights for the same language or territory are already sold, and sends the necessary emails. Agents see in one place which rights are sold and which are available to sell again.

CRM capabilities:

• books, authors, editions and print runs
• submissions to publishers
• rights sold and contracts
• contract date, country and agent
• automatic status updates
• expiry reminders
• overlap checks
• automated emails

An internal tool with no public website

Unlike Ahlbäck Agency, the Bonnier Rights CRM does not feed a public website. The agency’s site bonnierrights.fi is fully separate from the CRM, with no integration between them. The whole solution is an internal tool for agents, focused on contracts, deadlines and rights.

The shared foundation means both agencies use the same proven data model and contract logic.

Key characteristics:

• internal tool for agents
• same foundation and data model as the Ahlbäck Agency CRM
• no public website integration

The results

Rights, contracts and deadlines live in one place, and automation takes care of statuses, reminders, overlap checks and emails.