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(Rights Coordinator, Foreign Rights Manager, Digital Rights Manager, Head of Rights)
Creative & Media
Salary
€35,000 - €75,000/yr
Level
Professional
Outlook
Stable
Sector
Creative & Media
As a Publishing Rights Manager you are responsible for negotiating, licensing, and managing the copyright agreements that allow books, manuscripts, and other creative works to be translated, adapted, or distributed across different formats and territories. Your day-to-day work involves reviewing contracts, corresponding with international publishers, literary agents, and film producers, and assessing the commercial value of each rights deal. You work closely with editorial, legal, and finance teams within a publishing house or rights organisation, ensuring that agreements comply with copyright legislation in Ireland and internationally. You may manage a small team of rights coordinators and maintain a broad professional network of contacts across the publishing industry, including organisations such as the Irish Copyright Licensing Agency (ICLA) and international book fairs such as the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Listen: a day as a Publishing Rights Manager
You arrive at the Dublin city-centre publishing house just before nine o'clock, make a coffee, and open your inbox. There are overnight emails from a literary agent in New York querying the subsidiary rights for a debut Irish novel, and a follow-up from a German publisher about translation fees. You log everything into the rights management database your company uses to track every active licence, territory, and royalty split, then prioritise what needs a response today. By half nine you are in a brief team meeting with your two rights coordinators. You assign one of them to pull together a rights reversion report for a mid-list title whose original contract is close to expiry. Reversion means the rights to publish return to the author if certain sales thresholds have not been met, so the data has to be accurate before you contact the author's agent.
A Leaving Certificate with strong performance in English, Business, and a modern language is a useful foundation, as these subjects develop the communication, commercial awareness, and linguistic skills central to rights work. The typical entry route is an NFQ Level 8 Honours Bachelor degree in areas such as Publishing, Media Studies, English, Law, or Business, available at institutions including TU Dublin, UCD, and University of Galway. A postgraduate qualification at NFQ Level 9, such as a Masters in Publishing or Media Law, is increasingly valued for progression into senior roles. Some entrants move into rights from editorial or legal assistant positions, gaining on-the-job knowledge of copyright legislation and contract management. No statutory professional registration body exists for this occupation in Ireland, though active engagement with Publishing Ireland and international rights networks is professionally important.
Most Publishing Rights Managers in Ireland begin their careers in junior roles such as rights assistant or rights coordinator within a publishing house, literary agency, or an organisation like IMRO, building expertise in contract administration and copyright law. After several years of experience, you can progress to senior rights manager or head of rights, taking on greater responsibility for high-value deals and staff management. Some professionals move into broader commercial director or editorial director roles, while others specialise in a particular area such as digital rights or foreign rights. Membership of professional bodies such as Publishing Ireland and attendance at international book fairs can significantly accelerate career development.
AI tools are increasingly being used to automate routine contract drafting, rights tracking databases, and royalty calculations, which reduces administrative workload for rights managers and allows greater focus on negotiation and relationship management. Predictive analytics can assist in assessing the commercial viability of rights deals by modelling market trends and comparable sales data across territories. However, the core competencies of the role — building professional relationships, exercising commercial judgement, and navigating complex legal negotiations — remain firmly human-led and are difficult to automate. Rights managers who embrace AI-assisted contract management tools are likely to work more efficiently and handle broader portfolios.
→ Publishing Rights Manager (Current role)
Organisations in Ireland that employ people in this occupation.
Dublin 2
Manages translation, territorial and subsidiary rights for major titles.
Dublin 8
Handles licensing and rights deals for Irish and UK published works.
Dublin 12
Negotiates translation and adaptation rights for Irish children's and adult titles.
Dublin 8
Manages rights agreements for non-fiction, lifestyle and educational publications.
Newbridge, Co. Kildare
Oversees academic publishing rights and international distribution licensing.
Donnybrook, Dublin 4
Licenses content rights across broadcast, digital and international territories.
Cork City
Negotiates subsidiary and translation rights for Irish interest publications.
Dublin 13
Manages rights licensing and co-publication deals for commercial fiction titles.
Dublin 2
Administers and enforces copyright licensing on behalf of Irish rights holders.
Dublin 2
Handles rights sales and licensing across academic and trade publishing divisions.
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