David Marlin is the President and Co-Founder of MetaComet® Systems, a prominent provider of royalty automation tools. Since founding the company in 2000, David has spearheaded the development of a suite of best-in-class systems that effectively facilitate royalty processes for nearly 200 publishers. David has also served as the chair for The Book Industry Study Group’s Rights Committee and Digital Sales Committee.
Before establishing MetaComet Systems, David served as a technology consultant for renowned publishers, collaborating with notable companies such as Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins, Holtzbrinck, Macmillan, Scholastic, Time Warner, and many others. David holds both an MBA and a BA from Columbia University in New York.
Royalty Negotiation | Strategies, Tips & Traps for Licensees
Royalty negotiation sets the foundation for every licensing relationship that follows. Get it right, and both licensor and licensee share in a deal that rewards performance for years to come. Get it wrong, and even a promising partnership can turn into a source of ongoing friction and financial strain.
Case Study: A Small Publisher Makes Royalties Easy with MetaComet
Nikki Krysak is the publishing manager at the Seth Center (also known as New Awareness Network). She started her job during a period of significant structural change. Taking over the publishing arm of a small, informal organization meant that Nikki needed to modernize operations while maintaining the high level of trust among the members of the close-knit, longstanding Seth Center community. Throughout this process, MetaComet Systems has been more than just another software provider.
Best Automated Reconciliation Software for Royalty Payments
Royalty reconciliation is where the accuracy of an entire royalty program gets tested. Contracts can be perfectly negotiated and sales data perfectly collected, but if the numbers don’t reconcile cleanly against your financial systems, licensors and licensees are left chasing discrepancies instead of trusting their statements.
Book Sales Data | Our Guide to Tracking & Managing
Book sales data is the foundation of many critical publishing processes. Publishers rely on it to measure title performance, calculate royalties, manage inventory, forecast revenue, evaluate distribution channels, and make decisions about acquisitions and marketing. Yet book sales data is rarely simple.
Publishing Contracts Guide | What Licensees Need to Know
When it comes to publishing contracts, the publishers who thrive are not necessarily the ones who negotiate the hardest. They are the ones who negotiate for the rights they can best leverage, understand what they signed, can find the agreement when they need it, and can act on it appropriately for every single deal.
Royalty Administration | Definition & Best Practices
Every quarter, businesses around the world send millions of royalty payments to authors, artists, inventors, licensors, and partners. And every quarter, a surprising number of those payments are late or inaccurate. Well-managed royalty administration prevents those problems, and the stress that accompanies them.
What is Royalty Compliance? Requirements & Best Practices
Royalty compliance failures can lead to disputes, failed audits, legal exposure, reputational damage, and costly penalties. That’s why royalty compliance has become a discipline in its own right.
Tiered Royalties: Structure, Examples, Benefits, How They Work
Tiered royalties help align incentives between licensors and licensees, but they also introduce complexity in calculation, reporting, and compliance. This guide breaks down how they work, where they’re used, and what you should consider if you’re responsible for paying them.
Contracts & Rights Management | Components & Best Practices
This guide walks through what contracts and rights management is, how it works in practice, where it tends to break down, and how modern software is changing the discipline. Whether you’re a rights manager at a publishing house, a licensing director at a brand, or an IP counsel at a tech company, the fundamentals are the same.
Royalty Auditing Guide | Process, Rights & Best Practices
This guide is written for royalty managers, financial executives, and anyone else concerned with compliance and licensor relations at companies that license in intellectual property. It walks through what royalty auditing is, why it happens, what auditors examine, and how your organization can build the internal readiness to navigate an audit successfully.
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