Not legal advice. Run through this before each deal. It gathers the lines drawn across the book into one place. It isn't legal advice, and it isn't complete for every situation. When something in your deal isn't covered here, or a question makes you hesitate, ask a lawyer licensed where you work before you go ahead. The book is written for readers in the United States; if you live elsewhere, your rules are different.

Before you contact anyone

• Is everything I plan to say about the audience true, recent and something the owner agreed I could share?
• If I'm considering buying a property, am I describing my position honestly (considering, in talks) rather than implying I own it or am about to?
• Is my outreach to sponsors and owners one-to-one, accurate about who I am, with a real address and a way to opt out?
• If I'm using an ad network's advertiser report, am I using it through the owner's account, with their permission and within the network's terms?
• Is the audience made up of adults? (Children's audiences are outside this playbook.)
• Is the sponsor in a regulated category: alcohol, tobacco or vaping, cannabis, gambling, firearms, financial products or investments, crypto, health claims or supplements, prescription drugs, political or issue ads? If so, have I talked to a lawyer before going further?

Before you sell any placement

• Do I have a written agreement with the owner covering inventory, floor, resale model, exclusivity, reporting, approval, money, make-goods and exit?
• Does the owner have per-placement click data I can share with the sponsor?
• Does the deal have room for the owner, the sponsor and me, on real numbers?
• Does the platform the property runs on allow third-party sponsorship sales and this kind of placement? If it doesn't, the deal is off.
• Is it settled, in writing, who invoices the sponsor and when the owner's share is paid? Payments go between the principals. I don't hold other people's money; if I must collect, has a lawyer set it up first?
• If I'm auctioning a slot, are the rules published before the first bid, with no shill bids and no false scarcity? Is there no paid entry with a chance-based winner (a lottery or raffle)?

Before any placement runs

• Is it labeled as sponsored, paid or an ad, where readers will see it?
• If it's an endorsed send, is the owner writing in their own words about something they've used or genuinely believe in, with their paid relationship disclosed?
• Are there any health, financial or earnings claims in the copy? If so, are they true, documented and allowed for this sponsor, or should they come out?
• Does any "as seen in," testimonial or scarcity claim hold up?

After any placement runs

• Is the report I send the sponsor aggregate only: delivered, opens, clicks, cost per click? No names, emails or click-level identities.
• Have I noted that opens are a rough signal?
• Has the owner been paid on the agreed schedule? If I collect at all, is the owner's share kept separate from my own funds?

Rights and licensing

• Do I (or the person I'm acting for) actually own the rights I'm offering? Has a publisher, platform or co-author already been granted any of them?
• Does the license say what's granted, where, for how long, exclusive or not, how I'm paid, and that everything else stays with the owner?
• For white-label products: are support, refunds and quality responsibilities in writing, would the owner recommend the product without the money, and is the owner careful not to claim they created it?
• If any AI or software rights are involved, did a lawyer draft that grant?
• Do contributors have written agreements on rights, credit, payment and disclosure?
• In curated content, am I linking and quoting briefly with credit rather than republishing others' work?

Lists, communities and consent

• Has everyone on my own list opted in themselves, on a page that says who I am and what they'll get?
• Am I keeping sponsors away from subscribers' details, and never renting, sharing or copying any list? Do I mail only the people who choose to stay? No list ever changes hands.
• If a community or list is changing hands, have members been told plainly who's taking over, and given an easy way to leave, before anything promotional goes out?
• Do I have the owner's written permission before posting in or messaging a community?
• Are notes from member conversations kept private, kept only as long as needed, and shared with sponsors only in aggregate?
• If readers are in the EU, the UK, California or other places with stricter privacy rules, have I checked what applies?

Buying a property

• Did I count sponsor density and talk plainly to sponsors before committing?
• Is the price and structure fixed in a written agreement before I sell any placement to fund it, with the seller's written consent to that arrangement?
• Am I paying from my own money, the property's own earnings, or seller terms, rather than soliciting investors with a promised return? If outside money is involved, have I spoken to a lawyer first?

Money and taxes

• Am I tracking the fees and spreads I earn as income?
• Have I asked an accountant whether sales tax applies to advertising where I operate, and what forms the businesses paying me may send?

Things the book never does

• Promise income or suggest a typical result.
• Offer fill-in-the-blank contracts.
• Recommend a way around disclosure, consent or licensing rules.
• Name a real person or company as a bad actor.

From The Un-Publisher: A Media Operator's Playbook by Bill Eisenhauer · Toll Stack Press · tollstack.dev/books/the-un-publisher/