Retailers, distributors and manufacturers from around the continent are gathering in London this week to attend Brand Licensing Europe, the annual trade show where they can discover the thousands of brands and properties ripe for consumer products opportunities. Confused about the ins and outs of licensing? Want to learn more? We’ve got the book for you.

Licensing gurus Steven Ekstract and Stu Seltzer recently teamed up to pen a new standard in industry primers with Brand Licensing For Dummies.

Published in May, this 256-page how-to guide is designed to teach the ins and outs of licensing, helping industry newcomers understand the dynamics of discovering potential franchises, signing deals, building partnerships and expanding product distribution into new markets. The signature “For Dummies” writing style is in full effect here, making the subject matter accessible by keeping the language simple and introducing industry terminology at a gradual but steady pace.

Chapters five through eight are standouts, diving deep into the deal-making process. This is great “inside baseball” material that teaches the foundational aspects that licensees need to consider when drafting their contracts, from proposing royalty rates and understanding minimum guarantees, to the importance of territory rights and sell-off periods.

In between information-dense sections, the authors smartly break away periodically to give real-life examples of how a particular strategy has been used in the past. For instance, in chapter 11, Ekstract explores the licensing tie-in program for the Batman movie franchise, starting with the surprising runaway success of the iconic 1985 blockbuster, moving on to the commercial failure of Batman Returns, and then breaking down the course correction that returned the program to a winning formula for Batman Forever.

For brand owners looking to evolve their IPs into full fledged franchises, this book is a valuable tool to get up to speed and navigate the licensing world like a pro.

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen‘s Q4 2025 magazine issue.