Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Publishers Chair. Settle in, because today we're going to explore the remarkable career journey of David Marlin. From his early days at Columbia to his pivotal role in founding MetaComet, David has been at the forefront of shaping the technological landscape within the publishing world.

He's built a career on transforming complex financial processes into streamlined solutions, and in doing so has left an indelible mark on how creators and businesses manage their intellectual property. So, pull up a chair and let’s get to know the mind behind MetaComet. David, thank you for coming on.

Thank you very much, Angus, for having me. It’s great to be here.

‍

‍

Q1: David, you spent years as a technology consultant for some of the biggest names in publishing — Random House, Penguin, HarperCollins — before you even conceived of MetaComet. What was that moment, that specific challenge or recurring frustration you observed in the industry that made you think, “Right, I’ve had enough, I’m going to build a solution myself”? And can you paint a picture of the operational landscape you were witnessing before you stepped in to innovate?

Yeah, that's a really interesting question. So, I founded MetaComet really in—I started in 1999 with a partner, and we became an official company in 2000. Back then, the technology landscape in publishing was like the Wild West. It was just these cowboy coders like me who would go into places and write custom systems or modify existing systems. That was my role.

I had a business degree and had been doing marketing, but I really loved the technology side of things. So I was doing work with all these really cool companies. The dominant publishing system at the time was something called Vista. Some listeners may remember Vista. They dominated the publishing software landscape. Clobitech was also around, and there was a system called CYPUB. These were all kind of all-in-one solutions.

But there was nothing dedicated to the royalty problem. One of my customers was a company called e-reads, founded by literary agent Richard Curtis. He had the incredible foresight to ask his authors for their digital rights — which weren’t in contracts at the time. He got digital rights for hundreds, maybe thousands, of bestselling authors before most people even understood the concept.

He suddenly had this royalty problem: paying authors quarterly for sales from very early ebook platforms like the Rocket Book and Palm Digital. He asked me to build a royalty system. I quoted him $15,000 — thinking that was a lot — but probably ended up making about ten cents an hour. Despite that, we saw the opportunity. There were no dedicated royalty systems out there.

So we went into business together. That was the beginning of MetaComet. Interestingly, about 16–17 years ago, Richard sold e-reads, so we lost our first customer. But about 5–6 years ago, the company that bought e-reads started working with us — so we got them back. That’s how I got started.

‍

Q2: MetaComet’s philosophy revolves around making lives better by solving painful problems, as you say. So when you're sitting down with a potential client, what’s the most common story they tell you about their old process? And do you have any memorable anecdotes that highlight what your software brings to their daily operations?

I’m smiling because I definitely have anecdotes. Every publisher we work with usually has one or more of four problems:

1. The process is incredibly time-consuming, even with automation.
2. There’s uncertainty—people aren’t confident their royalty calculations are accurate.
3. It creates stress; royalty season feels like tax season.
4. It hinders growth, especially for high-growth publishers.

One memorable story: a small publisher run by two women. They’d grown much faster than expected and decided to pay royalties monthly. It became the founder’s full-time job. She was in tears — she loved publishing and working with authors but spent her life drowning in royalties. We started working with her, and within months she went from spending full-time on royalties to just a couple days per month.

Another: I visited a client in Colorado Springs. They paid royalties twice a year — and it took four months of each six-month cycle. After implementing MetaComet, that dropped to under two weeks.

A nightmare story: One customer doing quarterly royalties failed every parallel run test we ran against their past statements. Two periods back — wrong. Two years back — still wrong. They were unknowingly underpaying and overpaying different authors for years. It wasn’t malicious — just broken systems. They ended up quietly fixing things and using our system going forward.

‍

Q3: You're on record as a regular speaker in cyber security and publishing. MetaComet is SOC 2 Type II certified. In an increasingly digital world — especially given the sensitive financial data you handle — what’s the most infamous attempt at a data breach or security compromise that you've either personally encountered or heard about in the industry? And on a slightly more personal note, knowing you're safeguarding millions of pounds in creative income, how do you switch off at the end of the day?

Great question. So, here’s a story that happened to me. Several years ago, our COO Khaled and I were doing a customer tour in Europe — Netherlands, France, Spain. We were on a train from Amsterdam to Eindhoven using unencrypted Wi-Fi. Months later, our controller came to me asking about a $50,000 wire transfer the bank was questioning. I had no idea what she was talking about.

Turned out someone intercepted our credentials on that train and accessed our Microsoft 365 email. They set filters so any emails between me and our controller got redirected to them. They impersonated us — sent realistic-looking emails authorizing that wire. Thankfully, the bank had a manual override for transfers of that size, or we would’ve lost $50K.

That incident was terrifying. We decided to pursue SOC 2 Type II compliance. It’s an intensive, externally audited process. We skipped Type I and went straight for Type II.

Now we’ve got over 20 security policies and about 100 control points monitored by an automated platform called Vanta. We also became GDPR compliant.

To stay secure, we’ve added tools like Microsoft Defender, which sends out phishing test emails to staff. Everyone gets annual training, and our security officer tracks compliance daily. That’s how I sleep at night — knowing we’re doing everything reasonably possible.

‍

Q4: You’ve co-authored numerous pieces. If you had to distill all your experience in publishing and royalties into a single, unconventional piece of advice for a struggling author or small publisher trying to navigate the complexities of financial management — something beyond “read your contract” — what would it be? Maybe a clever hack or something counterintuitive you’ve learned?

It’s more general than publishing-specific, but here it is: what you tolerate, you endorse.

Whether it’s a business relationship or team dynamics, if you don’t speak up about an issue — a missed deadline, sloppy communication, ignored policies — you’re silently saying it’s okay.

A silly example: someone in our shared office complex kept leaving the toilet seat up in a unisex bathroom. No one addressed it. Once we did, it stopped.

Another: if someone on your team sends typo-ridden emails and you say nothing, you’re endorsing sloppiness. Or if foreign publishers fail to send royalty statements, and you don’t follow up, you’re telling them it’s acceptable.

So my advice: don’t let things slide. What you tolerate, you endorse.

‍

Q5: You've been at MetaComet since 1999 or 2000. With over two decades of experience in publishing, technology, and business, what would be the concise piece of advice that you would give to David Marlin of 1999? What message would you send back in time?

Oh man. A few things. First: don’t do it! I had no idea what I was doing and made so many mistakes.

But if I was going to do it, I’d say: learn more first. Do it bigger. We were self-funded, but maybe we should’ve raised capital. The opportunity was there to scale faster.

Also: be patient. Running a business is a slog — full of ups and downs. It takes time.

Another big one: I had imposter syndrome. I’d show up to meetings thinking, “What right do I have to advise these publishers?” But I actually did know more than they did about royalties.

And finally: don’t sell your Berkshire Hathaway stock in 2000. I needed the cash. Big mistake.

‍

David, thank you so much for your insights, advice, and stories. It's been brilliant to peek behind the curtain of not only your career but your mind.

— Thank you, Angus. This was a lot of fun.

‍