Ahlbäck Agency: a CRM for publishing rights that also powers the public website

The challenge

A literary agency runs on a web of contracts. One book can be sold into dozens of languages, each with its own terms and deadlines, and alongside book rights the agency also sells film and TV rights.

• Every language and territory is a separate deal. Translation rights are sold by language or territory, often to different publishers at different times. A single title can carry dozens of active contracts.
• Licences expire and rights revert. A licence runs for a fixed term. If an expiry goes unnoticed, the right sits unused. Agents need to know which rights are free to sell again.
• Agents and sub-agents across markets. Some markets are covered directly, others through local sub-agents. Every contract must show who made the deal and who to contact.
• The same data was needed on the website. Books, authors and foreign editions must appear on the public site with covers and descriptions. Entering the same data into the CRM and the website wastes time and causes errors.

The solution

We built the agency its own CRM and made it the single source of truth for book and rights data.

Managing books, editions 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. The agency sees 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
• publishing rights contracts and licences
• contract date, country and agent
• automatic status updates
• expiry reminders
• overlap checks
• automated emails

The CRM powers the public website

We also built the agency’s public website ahlbackagency.com on WordPress and PHP. Most of its content comes from the CRM through an API. Book pages, authors and foreign edition covers update on the site whenever an agent changes data in the CRM.

Information is managed in one place and the website is always current. The team never has to enter the same book into two systems.

Website integration:

• Node.js API for WordPress
• book and author data on the website
• covers and foreign edition covers from the CRM
• changes reach the site without double entry

The results

Rights and contract data live in one system, routine work is automated, deadlines no longer slip and the public website always matches the CRM.