Your contract says you indemnify the publisher. Read that line twice.
Most book contracts make the author promise the work is original and not defamatory, and repay the publisher if it is not. We place media liability for authors, for one title or a body of work, so a memoir, a biography or an investigation goes out with its own defense behind it.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What author businesses actually need.
Media liability
Covers claims arising from what you publish (defamation, copyright and trademark infringement, invasion of privacy and misuse of a person’s likeness) on an annual policy for creators, podcasters, publishers and authors.
Without it — Defamation, privacy and copyright claims over the book, the articles that promote it and the talks you give about it, with the defense paid as it happens.
Event liability
General liability for a single event or a season of them. It is the coverage a venue, park or municipality requires, naming them, before they will confirm the booking.
Without it — A reading or a launch you host yourself is an event, and the venue will ask for coverage by name.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — Workshops, retreats and classes you run, where a student can be hurt and a venue will want a certificate.
Cyber & tech E&O
Breach response, ransomware and the notification costs that follow. Technology errors and omissions sits on the same policy and covers the software or service itself failing a client, which is the half most tech companies find out about too late.
Without it — The reader list, the author site and the unpublished draft in a cloud account.
What the regulators actually wrote down.
On March 2, 2026 the Supreme Court declined to review Thaler v. Perlmutter, which leaves in place the rule that a work needs a human author to be registered for copyright.
Mayer Brown, "Supreme Court denies review in AI authorship case" · checked 2026-10-28
The U.S. Copyright Office concluded in January 2025 that prompts alone do not give a user enough control over AI output to make the user its author, while human selection, arrangement and modification of that output can be protected.
U.S. Copyright Office, "Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability" (January 2025) · checked 2026-10-28
A public official cannot recover damages for a defamatory falsehood about official conduct unless he proves the statement was made with actual malice, meaning knowledge that it was false or reckless disregard of whether it was false.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 279-280 (1964), Legal Information Institute · checked 2026-10-28
A copyright owner who proves infringement can elect statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, rising to $150,000 per work when the infringement was willful, without proving any actual loss.
17 U.S.C. § 504(c), Legal Information Institute · checked 2026-10-28
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
A person in a memoir or biography sues over how they were portrayed
Covered by Media liability, defamation and invasion of privacy
Authors assume changing a name is enough. A reader who can identify the person from the details is enough for a claim.
Common
The publisher is sued and sends the claim back to you under the warranty
Covered by Media liability that covers the contractual indemnity, or the publisher’s policy if it names you
The publisher’s insurance is assumed to protect the author. It protects you only if it names you as an insured, and the contract may make you pay its deductible.
Common
A rights holder claims lyrics, an epigraph, a photo or a long quotation in the book
Covered by Media liability, copyright
A short quotation is assumed to be fair use. A few lines can be a large share of a song or a poem, which weighs against fair use, and fair use is argued after the letter arrives.
Common
A self-published book draws a claim with no publisher behind it
Covered by Media liability bought by the author
The platform that prints and sells the book is assumed to share the risk. Its terms make the author responsible for the content.
Kevin Kelsey
Founder | Principal Agent
Founder of Boring Insurance, with a background in compliance and risk management for some of Hollywood’s largest production companies.
What the insurance company will ask about your author business
We read 3 applications the markets use for this kind of business and pulled out what they actually ask. Have these answers ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week, because nobody has to come back to you for the missing piece.
About the business
- What types of skiing trips do you offer (backcountry, heli-skiing, snow-cat, other)?
- How many clients do you take per year and how many days does each group typically ski?
- What elevations and terrain do you operate in?
- Are you a member of any professional ski guide organizations?
How you operate
- How do you decide when conditions are too unsafe or unskiable to run a trip?
- How do you update guides on current snow conditions between trips?
- What's your weather forecasting source and do you maintain your own weather records?
- Do you use snowmobiles or snow-cats to access terrain?
- Do you have lower-angle terrain available for bad weather days?
Safety and controls
- What are your protocols for finding and rescuing someone buried in an avalanche?
- Do you carry avalanche dogs or have access to them?
- How do you train clients to use avalanche transceivers?
- What's in each guide's pack?
- How often do you maintain and test avalanche transceivers?
Your history
- Have you had any incidents, claims, lawsuits or losses related to your ski guiding business?
- Have you ever been convicted of any crime?
- Do you currently have insurance with another company?
Money and people
- How much do you expect to earn annually from guided trips?
- What are the ages and experience levels of your guides?
Have these ready
- Your guide roster with each guide's age, experience, and resume for key staff
- Your avalanche transceiver maintenance records and schedule
- Your client release and acknowledgement of risk form
- All brochures and promotional materials showing how you market your trips
- Your previous insurance information if you have current or past coverage
You answer what you can; a licensed agent fills the rest with you.
What our author clients ask us.
Do authors need insurance?
Most fiction writers never buy it. The authors who need it write about real people, such as memoirists, biographers, investigative writers and anyone whose book makes a claim about a business. If your contract makes you indemnify the publisher, you are already carrying that risk, and a media policy is how you carry it with a defense attached rather than with your savings.
Does my publisher’s insurance cover me?
Only if its policy names authors as insureds, and only for the titles it covers. Ask the publisher in writing whether you are an insured on its media policy for your book, who pays the deductible, and whether the coverage continues after the book goes out of print. If the answer is no, buy your own before publication.
What will the underwriter ask an author?
The title, a description of the work, the publication date, the publisher, the advance and expected revenue, and how many copies will be printed in each format. The kind of work matters most, with unauthorized biography, tell-all and investigative writing asked about by name. Then whether galleys have gone out, whether a lawyer has reviewed it, and whether the publisher fact-checked it. Expect to send the manuscript and any vetting letter.
What is a vetting letter, and do I need one?
It is a media lawyer’s written review of the manuscript, flagging passages that could bring a libel, privacy or rights claim and what was done about each. Underwriters ask for it, and for nonfiction about living people it often decides whether a market will quote at all. It also improves the book. Have the review done before galleys go out, because coverage for copies already circulated is a separate request.
I used AI to help draft or research the book. What does that change?
Two things. Your contract warrants the book is original and yours, and after Thaler, left in place by the Supreme Court in March 2026, text with no human author cannot be registered, so you may be warranting rights you do not hold. And a quotation or a fact the model invented about a real person is your defamation. Disclose AI use to the publisher, check every claim about real people yourself, and tell the underwriter.
I self-publish. Can I still get coverage?
Yes. The application is the same and the price follows the same things, chiefly what the book is about, how many copies you expect to sell and whether a lawyer has read it. Self-published authors carry the whole risk, because the printing platform’s terms make the content yours, so a memoir or an exposé is the case where coverage matters most.
Someone in the book has threatened to sue before it comes out. What now?
Tell your agent, your publisher and a media lawyer, and disclose it on any application, because a known dispute is excluded from a new policy. A suit brought to stop speech on a public issue may be met with an anti-SLAPP motion in many states, which can end it early and sometimes recover fees.
What does author insurance cost?
We do not publish a range. A single title is priced on its subject, the print run, the advance and revenue, whether a lawyer vetted it and the limit you need. A novel with no real people in it is a small purchase; an unauthorized biography is a careful one, and some markets want the vetting letter before they quote.
What does a author insurance application ask for?
The applications for author businesses ask about 4 things above all: what types of skiing trips do you offer (backcountry, heli-skiing, snow-cat, other); how do you decide when conditions are too unsafe or unskiable to run a trip; what are your protocols for finding and rescuing someone buried in an avalanche; have you had any incidents, claims, lawsuits or losses related to your ski guiding business. Have your guide roster with each guide's age, experience, and resume for key staff and your avalanche transceiver maintenance records and schedule ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.