FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Welcome to The Tilt, the newsletter for content entrepreneurs from Tilt Publishing. Together, we’re redefining what it means to be a publisher.

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Do You Have the Right Insurance for Your Content Business?

Mistakes – even unintentional ones – happen. You publish something without realizing a portion was copyrighted or fail to fact-check a piece of information correctly. A guest on your live podcast makes a slanderous remark.

Accidents happen, too, even with the most thorough planning. A cyber thief accesses your database, gaining all that personal information you retain.

But you can (and should) do something now to mitigate the potential financial impact on you and your business. It’s also good to have insurance to comply with client and partner requirements and to indicate your business is not a hobby or fly-by-the-seat-of-its-pants operation.

MFE Insurance Brokerage outlines ​three types of insurance required for podcasters​, but they can apply to content entrepreneurs regardless of content products – errors and omissions, general liability, and cyber liability.

General liability insurance: All business types should have general liability insurance (and it’s the type most often required in third-party contracts). And it’s valuable even if you don’t have a physical space where someone could get hurt, or property could be damaged. It covers “advertising injury,” too.

“So you’re covered if someone sues you for … making false claims or posting their content without permission,” according to ​Practice’s insurance guide for writers​.

Errors and omissions insurance: Also known as professional liability insurance, it can apply to content products, where a mistake causes a customer to lose money, or consulting services, where clients blame your advice for a loss.

As MFE explains, E&O insurance covers transgressions such as plagiarism, accidentally slanderous remarks, trademark or copyright infringement, and misappropriation of personal details about your guests or sources.

In addition to paying valid claims, according to Chubb Insurance, ​E&O insurance can help​ with legal expenses required to deal with any claim (even frivolous ones).

Cyber insurance: Although it is a relative newcomer to the insurance category, every content entrepreneur should consider it, given how closely tied their business is to digital data and publishing.

In its cyber liability guide, JP Morgan Chase explains that this type of policy supports entrepreneurs who experience a cyberattack that results in data loss or a breach of confidential information.

Its coverage includes recovery costs for revenue losses from the business interruption, restoration of personal identities of impacted audience members, communication to stakeholders, and civil fines and penalties.

Cyber insurance also can be valuable if you’re a victim of cyber extortion. I know of one author who had his book draft file stolen and received a digital ransom note demanding payment to return the file. (He didn’t do it, but the incident also works as a reminder to save your files on an external hard drive.)

Understanding the policy numbers: You can acquire insurance in several ways – going directly to the insurance company, working with an agent or broker, or using the insurance benefits program from a professional group or association you belong to.

But no matter which route you take, you’ll have to make some decisions, including the policy limits, the deductible, and the premium.

With general liability, E&O, and cyber insurance, you likely will have two limits – claim and aggregate. The claim limit is the maximum amount paid for a single claim. The aggregate limit is the total amount your policy covers for all claims in a specified period (usually a year).

The deductible is the amount your business will pay before the insurance pays. And the premium is the amount you pay to hold a valid insurance policy.

Not surprisingly, all three components are tied together. So, if you have opt for a higher policy limit, you’ll have a higher premium. If you pick a higher deductible, you’ll have a lower premium.

Of course, the size, scope, and location of your business also affect premium rates. In general, small businesses can expect to pay $30 to $60 a month for general liability, $50 to $100 a month for E&O, and over $140 a month for cyber, according to multiple insurance sites.

– Ann Gynn

​​Learn what information applications for these insurance types typically require in the full article.​​

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• Beta bet … Here’s some great advice: “​Beta readers must represent the target audience​. If you’re writing for investors, your brother the nurse isn’t the best beta reader.” [Josh Bernoff]
• $100K breakdown … Multilayered read from Jen Glantz on self-publishing vs. traditional publishing and ​how $100K in self-publishing revenue doesn’t need to come just from books​. [Odd Jobs]
• Buy and read it on their terms … Amazon ​won’t let buyers of digital books download them to a computer​ and copy them manually to other digital readers (Kindle or otherwise). [The Verge]
• Verify so they’ll trust … No matter the publishing path, book ​writers are responsible for getting their facts checked​. [Esquire]

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