Contracts Clerk for Book Publishing

Crooked Lane Books / Alcove Press (CLB/AP) is an agile, high-velocity independent publisher of commercial fiction, publishing over 100 titles annually. We are looking for an autonomous, process-focused Book Publishing Contracts Clerk/Administrator to join our team on a freelance basis. This is a perfect fit for an independent operator who values superior system design and technological efficiency over corporate hierarchy. You must have an absolute dedication to completing action items, mapping out clear workflows, and tracking documents. You love heads-down, independent assignments. Primarily working on asynchronous tasks, you will leverage advanced text tools alongside our pre-approved negotiation guidelines to accelerate our contract pipeline, preventing administrative bottlenecks. This position has a direct impact on the house’s operational velocity, reports metrics to our production department for tracking, escalates contract language queries as necessary, and routes finalized documents to the Publisher. What You'll Do * Contract Generation: Ingest deal terms and leverage our library of boilerplates to generate initial author contracts within a 24-hour window. * Redline Review: Analyze incoming agent redlines using comparison tools. Cross-reference changes against our corporate response manual/negotiation guidebook, apply approved language, and enforce a strict 3-round negotiation ceiling. * Pipeline Tracking: Take complete ownership of the contract tracking lifecycle within Google Spreadsheets, maintaining real-time status updates and deploying standard follow-up sequences for stalled files. * Execution & Routing: Ensure prompt sign-off from all parties via Adobe Acrobat and Google Mail. * Data Extraction & Archiving: Extract critical post-execution data (e.g., royalty rates, subsidiary rights splits, option dates, territory parameters, etc.) from signed agreements and log them into necessary databases. * Disciplined Escalation: Seamlessly execute approved scripts and immediately escalate novel legal anomalies or exceptions up the chain of command. Who You Are * Experienced Clerk: Minimum 1–2 years of direct experience handling high volume contract administration or clerical processing at a traditional book publishing house or literary agency (Non-Negotiable). * Autonomous: A disciplined "doer" who thrives in a flat organization. You require no check-ins or reminders to clear your queue. * Process & Checklist Enthusiast: A detail-oriented problem solver who views strict SOPs, flowcharts, and tracking sheets as tools for fast, error-free execution. * Tactful Yet Firm Communicator: Poised and professional when managing correspondence with external agents, standing firm on house boilerplate language while communicating it clearly and objectively * Tech-Forward Operator: Highly proficient in Google Mail, Google Spreadsheets, Adobe, and demonstrated skill utilizing mainstream LLMs (Claude/ChatGPT) to accelerate text analysis. About Crooked Lane Books | Alcove Press Founded in 2015, Crooked Lane Books is an independent publisher that strives to entertain the many readers of commercial crime fiction. Alcove Press, an imprint of Crooked Lane, is dedicated to publishing upmarket book club fiction, romance, and speculative fiction. Both are responsive to readers' interests and agile within the industry to bring our authors' titles to the widest possible audiences.