Rights, royalties, and what stays with the author

The rights question is the first serious question every author should ask any publisher before signing anything. The answer tells you more about the relationship than any pitch deck does. Here is the plain answer for Crazy Simple Press.

What the author keeps

You keep the copyright on your manuscript. The text you wrote is yours. The framework you named is yours. The stories in your Story Bank are yours. The methodology you built over the career that preceded this book is yours, and the book does not change that.

You keep the rights to teach the material, license the framework to corporate clients, run cohorts built on the methodology, and build the Coach Edition of your curriculum. The book is the proof of your expertise. The imprint does not own your expertise.

You also keep the back-end business the book generates. The discovery call you close because the prospect read chapter five. The keynote you land because the meeting planner found the book in the trade catalog. The consulting retainer that starts because a board member read it on a flight. Those are yours. The imprint takes no percentage of downstream business revenue.

What the imprint holds

Crazy Simple Press holds the publishing rights to the specific title in its current form, distributed under the Crazy Simple Press ISBN and the A Crazy Simple Brand sub-mark. The imprint produces the cover under its locked template, the interior under its locked spec, and the launch infrastructure under its standard playbook. Those assets are the imprint's work product.

The licensing notice on the copyright page reflects this arrangement clearly. You own the content. The imprint owns the production and distribution infrastructure around it. Both parties benefit when the book sells.

How royalties work

Royalty structure and specific percentages are part of the author agreement reviewed during the discovery call. The terms vary by tier and are explained in full before you sign. If a number is not in writing, it does not exist. Every author gets the same document reviewed in the same call before any commitment is made.

The short version: the imprint earns from distribution. The author earns from sales. The goal is aligned because a book that sells well after month three serves everyone in the arrangement.

Send questions about specific terms to help@aaroncuha.com before the discovery call. Come to the call with the questions already formed. That conversation moves faster and you leave it with a clear answer, not a follow-up email.