Payments

Last edited by Tilly Barickman on 11th September 2026

Many projects sold are paid in 5 equal monthly instalments. This article informs editors how this impacts production.

What are the advantages of the 5 monthly subscription payments?

The advantages of 5 monthly subscription payments are as follows:

1. Manageable payments for the clients.
2. Benefits ST as we can better report on our revenue.
3. Payments are not tied to specific deal milestones.
4. Payments are collected automatically by Stripe.
5. As editors, you can freely work on a project without stopping or slowing down because you are waiting for cash collection (only if there is a failed payment now).
6. We can instantaneously collect cash for upgrades (once 100% confirmed). More on that here.

In terms of how our payment terms impact production, the most important thing is to ensure we have collected 80% of the total amount due for the project before submitting a draft to the client.

Email notification of failed payment

Usually, an email from HubSpot will notify you if a payment has been missed. As a PE, you will be cc’d into an email with the subject “Failed Payment - Please check if it’s a subscription package.” When that happens, you can log in to Stripe to confirm that the payment was missed.

The next steps involve collaboration with the Sales Agent. Get in touch with them to ask if they have heard from the client about delaying a payment. This is a good time for the SA to call the client to take payment. If you don’t hear from the SA that the payment has been collected within seven days, then work on the project needs to stop.

What are the tasks for editors at 7 days following failed payment?

• Seven days after a failed payment, if no payment has been received, email the purchaser/gift giver and the writer on your project that they must stop work until we secure the next payment.
• If you hear nothing back from the purchaser/gift giver, discuss closing down the project in your 1:1 with your team leader.

Collecting 80% of Payment Before Submitting Draft

Sometimes a project moves more quickly than the payment plan. This means that editors must remain aware of how far along a client is on payment. Before submitting the draft, we must collect the 4th of 5 payment instalments, for a total of 80% paid. The total price of the project must be paid before a book is sent to print.

Stay proactive by checking payments in Stripe.

How to Check Payments in Stripe

Editors can check in on payments in Stripe. The easiest way to do this is to copy the email address for a client from their contact details on the Deal page. From there, an editor can log in to Stripe and search for the client. Select the purple-highlighted email address to navigate to the client’s Customer page.

Tip: Make sure you are searching in the correct country. If you are searching for a UK client, click the “v” to select “Eternal Lives,” where payments for UK clients are located.

On the Customer page, you will see the Subscription for your client and a list of payments:

• Total spend — when the project is fully paid, this number will match the number listed on the deal page in HubSpot.
• Next invoice — shows the date and amount of the next payment due.
• Payments made so far — shows how many of the 5 instalments have been collected, so you can work out how close the client is to the 80% needed to submit the draft.

There is also a link you can generate to let your client update their payment information: click through to create a payment-update link, then copy and share it with your client so they can update their card details on file.