Marrowgate Press: website and rights portal
- Written scope, version 2
- Thursday 15 October 2026
- Clare Duffy (Publisher), Ade Bello (Rights)
- Friday 4 December 2026
What we’re building
A site that shows the whole list, around 180 titles in print, and keeps itself up to date from the distributor’s data feed. Behind it, an invite-only portal where foreign publishers and agents browse the rights list and request reading copies. Marrowgate’s team of four edits everything else themselves.
Not included, and why
- Selling books directly. The distributor and bookshops handle sales; a checkout would mean stock, payments and returns for a team of four.
- Audiobook pages. Moved out in version 2, because the audio rights for most titles are still being agreed.
- Design of the public pages. Marrowgate’s designer supplies them in Figma; we design the rights portal and the editing screens.
- Writing copy and negotiating rights. The editors own the voice, and the deals stay with Ade.
Price, changes and payment
The price is fixed and agreed in writing before we start. The number in this scope is the number on the invoice at the end.
If the scope changes mid-build, we quote the difference in writing before doing the work, and you decide whether it goes in now or after launch. A change can move the delivery date as well as the price. If it does, the written quote for the change says so, and nothing moves until you’ve agreed it.
Payment comes in two stages: the first when this scope is signed, the second when the site is live. This quote is valid for 30 days, until Saturday 14 November 2026.
What’s included, and when each item counts as done
Each item is accepted when its check passes on the staging site, in front of Clare or Ade at a Friday demo.
Included items and their acceptance checks
| Item | What it is | Accepted when |
|---|---|---|
| Book catalogue | Every title in print, with cover, blurb, formats, prices and ISBNs. Filters by genre, format and season. | Every title in the feed appears, and the filters return the right books for 20 titles Clare picks. |
| Book data feed | Book details imported each night from the distributor’s ONIX feed. Marrowgate’s own copy sits in fields the feed never overwrites. | A price changed at the distributor shows the next morning, and Marrowgate’s own blurb on that book is unchanged. |
| Author pages | Biography, photo, books and events. | Every author with a book in print has a page, linked from each of their books. |
| Editorial pages | Home, About, Submissions, Contact and News, built from blocks the team can rearrange. | Clare builds a new News page from blocks without help. |
| Retailer links | “Buy from” links on every book, to the bookshops Marrowgate chooses. | Changing the list in the CMS updates every book. |
| Rights portal | Invite-only login by email link, and the rights list by territory and language. | An invited agent can log in and an uninvited address can’t. Each title shows the right status for its territory. |
| Reading copies | Ade approves each request. Approved requesters get a time-limited link to a watermarked PDF. | The link downloads a PDF watermarked with the agent’s name and organisation, and stops working after 14 days. |
| Rights activity | One screen showing who asked for what, when, and what was sent. Exports as CSV. | Every request from the test run shows on screen and in the export. |
| Newsletter sign-up | A form posting to Marrowgate’s Mailchimp audience. | A test sign-up appears in the audience. |
| Content and redirects | Around 120 existing pages moved across, and every old book and author URL redirected. | A script finds every listed page on the new site, and every old URL returns one permanent redirect to the right page. |
| Search and sharing | Titles, descriptions, sharing images, a sitemap, and Book structured data on every title page. | Every title page’s structured data validates without errors. |
| Accessibility | Built to WCAG 2.2 AA. | A keyboard and screen reader pass leaves no open issues on the main templates. |
| Hosting and deployment | Staging and production, with a deployment on every merge. | A merge to main reaches production with no manual step. |
Milestones, assumptions and handover
A demo every Friday, all dates 2026
| Week | Demo | What you’ll see |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 Oct | Staging live, the ONIX import running against the real feed, first books on screen |
| 2 | 6 Nov | Book and author pages from the designs, the CMS ready to try, rights portal designs for review |
| 3 | 13 Nov | Home and editorial pages, filters, retailer links, newsletter sign-up |
| 4 | 20 Nov | Rights portal: login, rights list, requests and approvals |
| 5 | 27 Nov | Watermarked reading copies, the activity screen, content moved, redirects in place |
| 6 | 4 Dec | Accessibility and device testing done, launch on the production domain, handover |
Assumptions
- The distributor gives us access to the ONIX feed by Monday 26 October.
- The Figma files for the public pages are final by Monday 2 November.
- Ade sends each title’s rights status as a spreadsheet by Friday 6 November.
- Clare collects feedback after each demo and sends it as one list.
Handover, on launch day
- The code, in a repository in Marrowgate’s GitHub account.
- The hosting and CMS accounts, in Marrowgate’s name.
- A README for any developer: running and deploying the site, the ONIX import, and the watermarking.
- An editor guide for the team.
- A guide to the rights portal for Ade.
- A list of every third-party service the site uses, and who pays for it.