The author warranted it was true. The suit names the publisher first.
A book publisher answers for every title on its list, from a memoir that names a real family to a reprint whose photo permissions lapsed. We place publishers liability that defends those claims, can extend to your authors, and is priced on the list you actually publish.
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.
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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 book publisher 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 — Every title is a publication. Defamation, privacy and copyright claims over a book are written to the publisher as well as the author, and the media form is the policy that defends them.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — Book fairs, launch events and visitors to the office. It covers injury and damage, and it excludes publishers from its own libel coverage, which is why the media form exists.
Commercial property
Buildings and contents, valued at what it costs to rebuild today rather than what you paid.
Without it — Stock in a warehouse or at a distributor is property you have already paid to print. A fire or a roof leak at the fulfillment center destroys it.
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Without it — Unpublished manuscripts, author contracts, royalty records and a direct-to-reader store with card data sit in accounts that get taken over.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Editors, designers and warehouse staff on payroll are employees, and many states require coverage from the first hire.
What the regulators actually wrote down.
In Herceg v. Hustler Magazine (1987) the Fifth Circuit overturned a verdict against a magazine whose article a reader imitated with fatal results, holding the article was protected speech and not incitement.
Herceg v. Hustler Magazine, Inc., 814 F.2d 1017 (5th Cir. 1987), CourtListener · checked 2026-10-28
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 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
Someone portrayed in a memoir or a biography says the book defamed them or exposed private facts
Covered by Media liability, defamation and invasion of privacy
The author’s warranty and indemnity is assumed to protect the house. It gives you a claim against the author, who rarely can pay a defense bill, and the plaintiff sues the publisher because the publisher can.
Common
A photographer, an estate or a rights holder says a new edition uses material its permission never covered
Covered by Media liability, copyright and trademark
Permissions cleared for the first edition are assumed to carry over. Many were granted for one edition, one format or one territory, and an ebook or an audiobook is a new use.
Common
An author is named beside you and asks the house to defend them
Covered by Media liability with the authors added as insureds
Authors assume the publisher’s policy covers them. It covers them only if it says so, and the application asks whether you want it to.
Less common, severe
A reader follows a how-to, health or finance book and says it caused an injury or a loss
Covered by Media liability, with care over the bodily injury exclusion
Courts often protect the publisher, as the Fifth Circuit did in Herceg. The defense is still paid before the ruling, and many media forms exclude bodily injury unless an endorsement adds it back.
Less common, severe
A print run is destroyed in a warehouse fire or a water leak
Covered by Commercial property, stock at the warehouse address
The distributor’s insurance is assumed to cover your books. It covers its building and its liability, and your stock is often yours to insure.
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 our book publisher clients ask us.
What is publishers liability insurance?
It is media liability written for a publisher. It defends and pays claims that come from what you publish, chiefly defamation, invasion of privacy and copyright or trademark infringement, and most forms pay the defense whether or not the claim has merit. It is written on your whole list for a year rather than one title at a time, and it can be extended to the authors whose books you publish.
Our author contract has a warranty and indemnity. Do we still need coverage?
Yes. The warranty gives you a right to recover from the author after a claim, and that right is worth what the author can pay, which is rarely a defense bill. The plaintiff will name the publisher because the publisher has the insurance and the money. Keep the warranty and add a clause requiring the author to disclose anything a lawyer should read, and let the policy pay while the claim is fought.
Can the policy cover our authors too?
Usually, if you ask. The application asks whether coverage is needed for authors, and a policy that adds them as insureds defends the author and the house together, which avoids the two of you blaming each other in front of the plaintiff. Some houses add authors for every title and some only for titles a lawyer has reviewed. Agree who pays the deductible in the author contract.
What will the underwriter ask a book publisher?
What you publish, as a share of the list, with memoir, biography (authorized or not), investigative work, how-to, children’s and text books each asked about separately. Then how many original titles and reprints this year, whether staff edit and fact-check, whether rights are cleared again for reprints and new editions, whether a media lawyer reviews titles before publication, your author contracts, how you handle retraction requests, and any claim or demand in the last five years.
Some of our authors draft with AI. What does that change for the house?
Ownership and fault. After Thaler, which the Supreme Court declined to review in March 2026, text with no human author cannot be registered, so you may not hold exclusive rights in passages a model wrote. A fact or a quotation the model invented about a real person is defamation published by you. Ask authors to disclose AI use in the contract, and confirm your media policy covers AI-assisted titles in writing rather than carrying an AI exclusion.
Does it cover the ebook, the audiobook and the website?
If the policy’s definition of covered media reaches them. Some forms cover all of your publishing activity in any format and some list the formats and the websites they cover. Put every format, imprint and website on the application and read the definition on the quote. An audiobook also brings narration and music rights that a print edition never needed.
Someone has threatened to sue to stop a book. What happens?
Report it to your insurer and your media lawyer before anyone answers. A suit filed to punish or block speech on a public issue is often called a SLAPP, and many states let the defendant move early to dismiss it and, in some, recover legal fees. The media policy pays the defense of a covered claim, including that motion.
What does publishing insurance cost?
We do not publish a range, because the price is set by the list. Underwriters weigh what share of it is memoir, biography and investigative work, how many titles you publish, whether a lawyer reviews them before publication, your revenue, the limit and deductible you pick, how far back the coverage reaches, and any claim history. A house of cookbooks and children’s titles and a house of exposés are different risks.
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.