- File writing-related documents with your estate papers. - Karen Berger
Putting affairs in order is one of those cumbersome tasks of adulthood: Wills, powers of attorney, living wills, trusts, beneficiary accounts, and a dozen other loose ends all have to be sorted out and tied up. We usually tackle these projects at moments of life change: Having children means planning for "just in case," divorcing means changing a will and beneficiaries on accounts, retiring may lead to planning for aging-related estate concerns.
But a whole other set of estate related problems exists for writers, whose work may continue to earn money via royalties, passive income, advertising fees, and affiliate link commissions after they die. Whether or not your estate actually gets that money depends how well you have planned. If your beneficiaries don't know about the monthly passive income that is deposited into your PayPal account, or if the estate closes the bank account that receives automatic payments from AdSense, they may never benefit from this income.
Putting your Internet House in Order
Estate planning for writers was a lot easier before the Internet. Back then, the major source of continuing income for writers was royalties from (usually) a small number of books in print.
But today, in addition to books, most writers have websites, blogs, and income that may come from apps, e-books, affiliate links, and sites that pay ongoing royalties based on viewership or advertising. All these continue to earn money after you die, and unless you have signed a contract that says otherwise, that money belongs to your estate. But in order for your heirs to benefit from it, they have to know it's there.
So, when you're organizing your personal documents and papers -- things like living wills, wills, powers of attorney, trusts, beneficiary accounts, and the like, don't forget to add your literary property to your list.
Here's the information you'll need to pull together.
1) The name of every online business that pays you money.
2) For each account, you'll need the URL, a name and e-mail for your main contact, a copy of or link to your contract, your user name and password, and information and user IDs/passwords for PayPal or any other payment services.
3) An easy to read summary of your relationship with the site and how you get paid (because no one wants to read through every word of your contract!). For example: For Suite 101, I'd include my user name and password, the contact information for a staff editor, basic information about how Suite pays (monthly, to PayPal), what rights they've bought, and instructions for accessing (or a copy of) the contract.
4) Note whether you have made back-up copies of your content on each site, and where it is stored: This is property that, depending on rights you have sold, your heirs may be able to resell in the future.
5) If you have registered copyrights, include those documents in the package, as well.
This information should be stored with your other estate planning documents.
Non-Monetized Websites and Blogs
Note that you'll also want to include information about sites that don't pay you money, but which might cost money (in terms of website hosting fees and URL renewals), and which might promote your work. Clearly, your beneficiaries will not want or need to maintain a site that positions you as a writer-for-hire or solicits ongoing work from editors. But your estate may want to maintain a website that promotes and sells your work. Someone needs to be instructed about hosting services and what the purpose of the site is -- and if the site is to be maintained, your beneficiaries will need passwords in order to update the contact information, pay for renewals, and manage the site.
According to the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, and most other countries, intellectual property is in fact property, and can be bought, sold, and inherited like any other property. Unless you have specifically signed a contract that sold your copyright, your intellectual property will pass on to your heirs. So when you're tending to the paperwork of estate planning, be sure to include all the information necessary to bequeath the benefits of your literary property to the next generation.
Karen Berger - Karen Berger is the author of 15 books. Please click on her name to read her full bio.
