Short version:

You can now see every rights-carrying title you’ve ordered directly from Conversation Tree Press, check which rights you currently hold, and easily transfer them to another collector.

Longer version:

After many (many) hours of work we’re excited to share two new features on our website—the ability for collectors to look up their rights information (both past and present) and easily transfer rights.

These features are available at our Rights Lookup and Transfers page and you can sign in using your email address and any Conversation Tree Press order number.

Note that an order number is required, so if you have not ordered a book directly from us before, you will not be able to log in, even if rights have been transferred to you.

After logging in, you’ll see two pages.

1. Rights Lookup

This page has two sections. The first makes it easy for any collector who bought a book with rights from Conversation Tree Press to see what their designated number, letter, or Roman numeral was.

To make this as complete as possible, we went all the way back to the first Conversation Tree Press book—Peter Pan—when adding records.  

(Designations obscured in all screenshots)

The second part of this page is where it starts to get interesting. It shows which rights you currently have, both along our publisher’s rights and series rights lines, and the title from which those rights were derived.

Not yet visible, but once a pre-order date is confirmed for a title you hold rights to, it will appear next to that title:

2. Rights Transfer

The second page can be used to transfer rights to someone else if you're selling a book that carries rights.

And because we’re tracking the rights you hold, transfers are now easier than ever.

No more hunting down order numbers or designations, or accidentally trying to transfer rights you don’t hold. You only see exactly what you have and if it is transferable.

When we start a new series, the first volume will have both series and publisher’s rights. We’re able to track that and easily allow you to select one or both of those rights when selling that book. Here’s what that will look like using Elric of Melniboné as an example, after someone pre-orders it:

Once the form is completed with the rights selection and buyer information, submitting it will send an email to us for approval. Once approved, both the buyer and seller will automatically receive emails from us confirming the transfer and its details.

The new rights-holder will then see it show up under the Rights You Hold section of the Rights Lookup page.

Why We Built This

Collectors who support our press deserve to know exactly what rights they have at any given moment along with the ability to transfer those rights with minimal friction. This new area accomplishes that while streamlining things on our end so we can approve requests faster, with less room for error, while keeping both buyer and seller informed.

We’ve done our best to be as thorough as possible for our earliest books, but there may be some gaps. We’re focused on current rights and books going forward, so we’ll make corrections and updates as needed for the most recent book in an ongoing series and our most recent book along our publisher’s rights line (Perdido Street Station). If something doesn’t look right please send us an email.

Also worth noting: going forward, rights will lock one week before pre-orders open for a title, and transfers will not be possible from that point onwards.

An Even Bigger Picture

These new features are actually one of the outputs of a robust system we’ve built to manage rights to our titles: every book, every right it carries, and every transfer, all tracked efficiently and accurately, with room to grow. It joins our recently updated Publishing Schedule page and our new Production Status page.

We’ve put a great deal of time, thought, and resources into all of this, and we hope you find it useful.