Publishing House of the Authors

What Publishing House of the Authors does

Verlag der Autoren GmbH & Co KG is a privately held German authors' publishing house and multi-disciplinary creative agency headquartered at Taunusstrasse 19 in Frankfurt am Main (HRA 20219), governed by its Autorenstiftung (authors' foundation). The company operates five interconnected divisions — Theater Verlag, Medien Agentur, Literatur Agentur, Choreographie, and Buch Verlag — on a shared roster of hundreds of represented authors and translators. Its primary commercial activity is theatrical script publishing and rights licensing, distributing scripts free of charge to professional theaters that are members of the Deutscher Bühnenverein through an authenticated login-based platform, while charging licensing fees for performance rights. Secondary revenue comes from direct-to-consumer book sales via its own online bookshop (e.g., EUR 14 per copy for Spielplatz anthologies) and from film/TV media rights managed through its Medien Agentur, with active festival presence at Filmfest München, Golden Spatz, and the Salzburg Festival.

Underlying technology is a digital content management and distribution platform rather than a software product: it includes authenticated script downloads for verified professional theaters and an e-commerce bookshop for retail customers. The company also runs a B2C book publishing arm with standard retail and wholesale distribution (Buchhandel), a separate media agency division coordinating film rights and production schedules, and a literature agency managing readings and prose rights. No public APIs, partner integrations, mobile applications, or AI/ML capabilities are disclosed in the source material.

The business model blends freemium distribution to a gated professional network with transactional retail and licensing royalties. The customer base is segmented into professional theaters (primary, gated by Deutscher Bühnenverein membership), educational institutions purchasing scripts and anthologies (secondary), and film/TV production companies licensing media rights (secondary). The company is independently owned under a Kommanditgesellschaft structure, managed by Thomas Maagh and Dr. Sebastian Richter as Geschäftsführer, and serves primarily the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) with selected international activity into Hungary and the Netherlands.

Name

Publishing House of the Authors

Legal name

Verlag der Autoren GmbH & Co KG

Website

https://verlagderautoren.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1969

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Verlag der Autoren is a Frankfurt-based, author-owned German publishing house and creative agency that licenses theatrical scripts to professional DACH theaters via a gated Deutscher Bühnenverein platform, sells books direct online, and represents film and media rights for hundreds of authors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Theater Publishing & Rights Licensing

NAICS

Book Publishers (513130)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731)

akta.pro primary industry

General Trade Publishing (Adult Fiction & Nonfiction) (MPAJAAAA)

Keywords

• Theatrical script publishing
• Performance rights licensing
• Author representation agency
• Film media rights
• Book publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Frankfurt

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Theater Script Licensing: Revenue from licensing theatrical scripts and performance rights to professional theaters. Scripts are provided free to member theaters of the Deutscher Bühnenverein, with licensing fees applicable for performances.
2. Book Sales: Direct sales of published books through the company's online bookshop. Books include theatrical collections and drama texts priced at standard retail rates (e.g., €14 per copy).
3. Film and Media Rights: Representation and licensing of film rights for authors, demonstrated by media agency activities and presence at film festivals like Filmfest München.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Verlag der Autoren is a multi-division authors' publishing house that publishes and licenses theatrical scripts, represents authors for film/TV media rights, manages literary reading representation, handles choreography rights, and publishes books. Professional theaters that are members of the Deutscher Bühnenverein access the catalog through an authenticated download portal, while individuals and institutions purchase books directly via the company's online bookshop.

Product overview

Verlag der Autoren is a German authors' publishing house operating as a multi-division platform. The core offering consists of five interconnected divisions: Theater Verlag (theater play publishing with script ordering and download portal), Medien Agentur (film/TV rights and media projects), Literatur Agentur (literary authors and readings), Choreographie (dance and movement works), and Buch Verlag (book publishing with integrated online shop). The divisions share a unified author roster across theater, film, and literature, with a centralized ordering system for scripts and books. Individual author portfolios span multiple divisions—for example, a playwright may also have film adaptations and published books managed through different divisions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Theater Verlag: Theater publishing division focusing on theater plays, scripts, and dramatic works
• Medien Agentur
• Literatur Agentur
• Choreographie
• Buch Verlag

Products and services

• Theater Verlag (Theater Publishing) Publishing and licensing of theatrical plays and scripts, featuring a catalog of contemporary and classical playwrights with performance rights management and a secure download portal for licensed professional theaters.
• Medien Agentur (Media Agency) Manages film and television rights for authors, coordinates screenwriting projects, and tracks production schedules and broadcast dates.
• Literatur Agentur (Literature Agency) Represents literary authors, manages reading events and appearances, and handles rights for prose and other literary works.
• Choreographie (Choreography Division) Specialized division for dance and movement-based theatrical works, managing choreography-related rights and performances.
• Buch Verlag (Book Publishing) Traditional book publishing division with an integrated online bookshop (Buchshop) and retail book trade distribution (Buchhandel) for published works by represented authors.
• Spielplatz Series (Children's Theater Anthologies) Collections of children's theater plays published as anthologies, including titles such as Spielplatz 8 (ISBN 978-3-88661-159-1) and Spielplatz 14 (ISBN 978-3-88661-234-5), featuring multiple playwrights and sold at €14 per copy.

Quantifiable outcome

• Authors represented at major theater festivals including Salzburg Festival, Filmfest München, and Golden Spatz

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• SchultheatertexteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerVerlag der Autoren maintains a partnership with Schultheatertexte.de, a platform for school theater texts. The collaboration is featured on the theater section of the website, indicating a co-marketing arrangement for educational theater content.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Schultheatertexte.de: German online platform specializing in school theater texts and educational drama. Adjacent peer and existing partnership counterparty for Verlag der Autoren, addressing the educational theater segment with a more digitally focused model.

Direct peers

• Felix Bloch Erben: One of Germany's longest-established theatrical rights agencies and play publishers. Directly comparable as a Berlin-based competitor managing performance rights for a major catalog of German-language playwrights and operating similar B2B theater distribution models.
• Hartmann & Stauffacher: Bad Vilbel-based German theatrical rights agency representing playwrights for stage and media exploitation. Directly comparable as a competitor managing performance, film, and TV rights for German-language theater authors.
• Drei Masken Verlag: Munich-based theatrical publishing house specializing in German-language plays and performance rights. Direct peer in theatrical script publishing with a comparable author roster and rights management focus.

Broad incumbents

• Rowohlt Verlag: Major Hamburg-based German trade publisher (also under Holtzbrinck) with theater and dramatic literature in its catalog. Compares as a broad incumbent publishing some theatrical works, though theater is not its primary focus.
• Carl Hanser Verlag: Munich-based German literary and trade publisher with select theatrical works in its catalog. Comparable as an independent DACH trade publisher with overlapping author and rights management functions.
• Kiepenheuer & Witsch: Cologne-based German literary publisher with theater titles in its catalog. Comparable as a DACH literary publisher managing rights for German-language authors, though operating at significantly larger scale.
• Diogenes Verlag: Swiss-based independent publisher with international literary rights including German-language dramatic works. Comparable as an independent DACH-region trade publisher, though theater is not its core specialization.
• S. Fischer Verlag: Major German literary publisher whose theater program (S. Fischer Theater Verlag) publishes and manages rights for prominent German playwrights. Overlaps in theatrical publishing but operates as part of a much larger general publishing portfolio under Holtzbrinck.
• Suhrkamp Verlag: Prestigious German literary publisher with a notable theater and drama program including works by major contemporary playwrights. Comparable in theatrical rights publishing but much broader in scope, owned by the Suhrkamp shareholder group.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/verlagderautoren.de

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Publishing House of the Authors