A Practical Guide to Protecting Your Author Legacy

GUEST SPEAKER: Neil Plakcy

What Happens to Your Books When You Die?

You’ve spent years writing books, building a readership, signing contracts, creating websites and newsletters, and collecting royalties. But what happens to all of it when you’re no longer around to manage it?

Will your heirs know which publishers owe you money? When your audiobook rights revert? How to access your KDP account? Which books are under contract—and which rights could be sold again? What about unpublished manuscripts, pen names, websites, social media accounts, and that secret shifter-erotica series your family doesn’t know exists?

Author Neil S. Plakcy offers a practical—and occasionally irreverent—guide to getting your writing business ready to survive you. We’ll cover choosing a literary executor, creating an Author Business Binder and master title inventory, tracking contracts and royalty streams, managing passwords and digital accounts, leaving instructions for unpublished work, and making sure your will addresses your intellectual property.

You don’t have to solve everything at once. But you do need to leave behind enough information so that the person who inherits your work knows what you own, where the money comes from, and what you want done with it.

Because your books may have a much longer life than you do.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Neil is a multi-genre author best known for his dog-centered mysteries, gay fiction, and character-driven romance. A retired college professor, he speaks with libraries and book clubs and offers Zoom classes for writers on craft, publishing, and the ethical use of AI.