No. Just good ideas and a passion for storytelling.

Yes. DML has speech to text translation software people with dyslexia can use.

The starting salary is £24,000 per year gross for all authors.

Authors will receive fifty per cent after all costs are taken into account i.e. salary, production costs and marketing.

It depends on the author and their ideas. Writers will be expected to hit certain targets but there is no prescribed number of books per year they will need to produce.

Specifically fiction but any genre, e.g. science-fiction, crime thriller, romance, teenage etc.

Candidates can apply online at www.demontfortliterature.com. The initial application involves providing basic personal details, writing experience (if any), reasons they want to be a novelist and genres they’re interested in.

If applicants get through the first stage, a psychometric test will be conducted, followed by a number of interview stages to discuss ideas and the expectations of the role. If successful, a contract will be offered and terms agreed.

No.

It is advisable. DML will cover the cost of the legal advice, which should be provided by an independent lawyer.

In most cases, yes.

They don’t need to. The current model works fine for them. People send them manuscripts every year, either directly or through agents. They can pick and choose the best manuscripts they have without having to pay anything for them. Writers have to do all the work, take all the risk and then hope their manuscript gets accepted.

De Montfort Literature is backed by a hedge fund, so it has more money at its disposal to invest in authors.

You will own your IP / Copyright aka ‘The Work’ (on which DML will pay you royalties)

DML will own all of the derivative product and format rights of your Work. For example (but not limited to) the text rights for publication, radio rights, TV and film rights.

What this means is that you own your worlds and your characters etc. but we would own individual storylines / plots in every format.
For example: If you were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and came to us with the plot lines for Sherlock Holmes, ‘A Study in Scarlet’ and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, then you would own the IP for Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson etc. and the Victorian London World which he inhabits. We would merely own the publication rights to ‘A Study in Scarlet’ and ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ in all formats. If you were to leave DML, having written and published ‘A Study in Scarlet’, then we would still own ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and you would have the sole right to buy that storyline from us*, but regardless of whether you do or not, you would be free to use Sherlock etc. in future storylines as you own the IP for the Work.

*You have the sole right to buy your storyline rights from us if you leave DML. i.e. if we want to sell the rights, we can only sell them to you, unless you give us permission to sell them to someone else.

If you decide to buy the rights, the price set is based on a formula.

Solely you. We are looking to promote you as an authorial brand.

We want you to write your novels and so we encourage you to do so, but there are a few cases in which we might use a ghost writer instead:

1. You ask us to – e.g. you may have so many winning ideas that you couldn’t write them all yourself, but still want to get them all out there into the world.
2. You decide to leave DML and join another publisher, but you leave your IP with us rather than buy it.
3. You decide to retire from writing, but have outstanding ideas left with us.
4. You become ill and prefer to tick off your bucket list rather than write.
5. You die and have outstanding ideas, we’d write them out in your honour, royalties would go to your estate.

We have the sole discretion on whether to sell film / TV / radio rights etc. and for how much or whether to implement such a format ourselves.

You are entitled to 50% of the profits after costs (e.g. rights sale price – rights agency fees).

It is advisable. DML will cover the cost of the legal advice, which should be provided by an independent lawyer.

We will also pay for you to have membership of the Society of Authors, so that they may also look at your contract.

Yes.

We will provide all computer equipment and software necessary.

Yes. Whilst we have worldwide distribution facilities, our focus for now is on English texts.

No, this is a worldwide program, but your novels need to be in English.

There is a box on the 2nd step of the application asking for your country of residence, this is so that we have prior knowledge of how to conduct an interview with you, should you get that far, without having to ask you to fill in another form.

Yes, you will receive an email providing feedback as to why your application was unsuccessful.

If you were unsuccessful at the psychometrics stage, then no, otherwise, yes.

We have two of the world’s largest distributors providing us with global distribution access. An exciting announcement is coming soon.

Yes, we will sell books via Waterstones, Amazon, Wordery, WHSmiths, Blackwells, Foyles and many independent book shops.

e.g. See these listings:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1912770016

https://wordery.com/jonathan-de-montfort-author

https://www.waterstones.com/books/search/term/jonathan+de+montfort

http://www.foyles.co.uk/all?advsearch=1&author=Jonathan%20de%20Montfort

No.

No. We expect you to be working full time for us, that’s why we’re paying you.

25 days + bank holidays per year

A basic pension will be paid on top of the salary.

Yes.

One month.