IBPA Publishing University 2025

Succession Planning

With Faculty Alexa Bigwarfe and Miriam Warren, with moderator and host Renita Bryant.

Whether you're building a legacy or planning your next chapter, every publishing professional needs a solid exit strategy. In this practical, one-hour workshop, you'll learn how to prepare your business for retirement, sale, or the unexpected—with insights tailored to indie publishers and author-publishers.
Hosted and moderated by Renita Bryant of Mynd Matters Publishing, Miriam Warren (Director, the Fisher Company) and Alexa Bigwarfe (CEO, Founder, Write|Publish|Sell and the Women in Publishing Summit) will walk you through the key components of succession planning, from legal and financial must-haves to SOPs, contracts, and royalty management. You'll hear real-world examples (with a fun nod to Succession the show) and leave with actionable resources, checklists, and downloadable tools to future-proof your publishing empire. 

The Established Publisher breakout sessions are intended for independent publishers who have an established business and experience in the industry, and are looking to successfully grow and scale their publishing company. (Generally you will have been in the publishing industry for at least four years, and have published more than ten titles.) Please note that if you are just starting out and you attend an Established Independent Publisher session you are auditing the class, and we ask that you not take up session time with beginner-level questions.

Session Outline:

1. Introduction of the speakers and overview of goals of workshop - Renita - 5 mins
   
2. Overview of what succession planning is and the different pieces of it - Miriam - 10 mins
   
   1. Retirement, death, incapacitation, selling the business, gifting it
      
3. Legal & financial documents and things to have in place - what you need to do to prepare your business for succession - Alexa - 15 mins
   
   1. Wills
      
   2. SOPs
      
   3. Bank accounts
      
   4. Contracts
      
   5. Royalties
      
   6. Billing/payment methods
      
   7. passwords/logins
      
   8. insurance
      
4. Examples of other companies - bigger public and private - Miriam (throughout presentation)
   
5. Selling / gifting / preparing the company for sale - Miriam - 15 mins
   
   1. Process
      
6. Q&A - 15 mins - Renita moderating