Royalty Reader is an AI-driven software solution that aims to automate the extraction and organization of data from contracts and royalty statements. Co-founders Max Hinchcliffe and Matt Belford developed the platform to address what they describe as persistent data management problems in literary agencies, where information entry is often manual, time-consuming, and prone to errors.
“Agencies are weird in that they receive a giant check of money, they take their commission, and then they pass the rest off to their client,” Belford said. “That workflow is awkward and isn’t really handled incredibly well by other systems or other even accounting systems.”
Hinchcliffe, who previously worked as v-p of corporate development at International Literary Properties, noted: “There was all this information that, because it was so painful to get into a system, never got into a system, and thus reporting was either incomplete or non-existent.”
The Royalty Reader automatically extracts key information from uploaded contracts and royalty statements, including the amount of an advance, royalty rates, territorial rights, and sales data. Users review and approve the extracted information before it enters the system’s database.
Belford, who worked in publishing for over a decade at companies including Macmillan and Random House, before joining The Rights Factory, where he is a literary agent, identified user experience as a critical differentiator from existing systems, many of which are 20-plus years old, and noted “this is assistive, not generative AI—nothing new is being created.”
The platform is designed specifically for literary agencies which function as pass-through corporations that collect royalty payments and distribute them to clients after deducting commissions. Accordingly, Royalty Reader provides several core functions: contract data extraction and storage, royalty statement processing, anticipated monies reporting, and automated alerts for contract expirations and potential rights reversions.
The system can identify when books may qualify for out-of-print status based on sales thresholds defined in contracts and sends automated reminders about upcoming advance payments and contract renewals.
“If there was a New York Times bestseller bonus in this contract, you can put in that reminder date or a check to remind you at earn-out statements,” Hinchcliffe said.
The platform operates as a web-based application with pricing that scales based on user count and document volume, and describes its pricing as competitive with existing database management tools in the market.
Hinchcliffe emphasized that humans must maintain a role in overseeing the process. “At present, we don’t claim that what the software produces is 100 percent accurate, but we are getting closer every day,” Hinchcliffe said. “Every piece of this has to be approved by a human. That’s how this is built.”
The company, which is self-funded and not seeking outside investment, has secured nearly 10 clients, primarily through word-of-mouth referrals, and has launched formally this fall. While initially targeted at North American literary agencies, Royalty Reader is exploring opportunities with foreign co-agents and considering eventual expansion to publishing houses.
The company’s roadmap includes potential features such as automated auditing of royalty statements against contract terms, processing of CSV files from retailers like Amazon, and facilitating actual payment processing.
For Hinchcliffe, the software will develop according to the user needs and feedback. “What do people ask for the most? What do they value the most? How can we save them the most time or help their process? Those are the questions that we want to answer and have Royalty Reader solve,” he said.
