Every document in the Vault is built the same way: a line-by-line video walkthrough so you know what to fill in and what to leave alone, and an editable template you can use on your own production. Here's the Literary Purchase Agreement in full — the document you use when you've agreed to buy the rights to a book, article, podcast, or memoir.
2Open the template
The full Literary Purchase Agreement, with its Reserved Rights Schedule (Exhibit A) and Certificate of Authorship (Exhibit B). Highlighted brackets are the blanks you fill in.
Open the contract template →In Google Docs, choose File → Make a copy to get a version you can edit.
3Read the breakdown
The written walkthrough: how this document works and why it's built the way it is.
Read the blog post →4Quick usage note
- When to use it: the moment you've optioned or agreed to buy the underlying rights to a novel, article, podcast, memoir, or any other pre-existing literary work you did not write yourself. If your writer is drafting an original spec script, you want a Writer Agreement and Certificate of Authorship instead.
- The clause doing the heavy lifting: Section 4, Representations & Warranties. A distributor's E&O carrier isn't underwriting your handshake with the author — it's underwriting this section.
- The mistake it prevents: buying “all rights” from an author whose publisher quietly holds the film option, or who already sold audio rights to someone else. This document forces that conflict to surface before you've spent a dollar in production.
- What it does not do: it doesn't clear life-story or depiction issues for real people referenced in the work, and it doesn't register your copyright. Those are separate documents.
5Before you use it
⚠ Educational resource only — not legal advice. Using this template does not create an attorney-client relationship, and you should have it reviewed by a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction before you sign anything. Read the full disclaimer.
6Like what you see?
That's one document. The Vault has the whole chain-of-title library, with new documents added as they're finished.
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