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royalties: the rest of the skinny

Sara G asked about the 10% I mentioned in the last post in my example of royalties per book sold. She thought the figure seemed low.

Well, sorry to say that it's pretty much on target.

If you're talking about a hardcover book, the author generally gets 10% on the first 1 to 250,000 25,000 copies sold, 12% on the next 250,000 25,000 and 15% on anything sold above 500,000 50,000 copies -- after the advance is paid out, of course. And these figures are negotiable. I would guess Stephen King's numbers are better.

For softcover, the range is much greater, usually someplace between 6% and 10% of the cover price, again with increases as the number of sales climbs.

This probably is pretty sobering for those who are hoping to make a living writing fiction. A small ray of sunshine: you know how the big box stores sometimes sell new hardcovers for 10-30% off the cover price? That doesn't hurt the author, who still gets a percentage of the listed cover. That 30% discount comes out of the publisher's and distributor's chunk of the profits.

Another good thing: your novel is sold in North American, you get an advance. If your agent is working hard, you'll also have a shot at foreign markets, and for each of those that buys the rights to publish your novel (after translating it, of course) you'll get another advance. Usually much smaller than the US advance (and you'll pay a bigger percentage to a foreign agent, as well), but still something. If a novel sells to three or seven or twenty foreign markets, the money adds up.

Homestead has been translated into ten foreign languages, including Chinese and Catalan. Into the Wilderness has been translated into (I think) eight, all European.

Edited to add:

Alison pointed me to Lee Goldberg's blog, which quoted this post. To his post there is a comment by Laurie King, which I include here. Here's what Laurie said about the royalty information above:

"Man, this is one writer who REALLY needs a better agent. I can only hope it's a typo--a more typical royalty division (for regularly discounted books sold in the US market) is along the lines of 10 percent for the author on the first 5000 books sold, 12 1/2 percent on the next 5000, and after that 15 percent. Or more if, as you say, your numbers mean you can dictate to your publisher what you want. Then 7 1/2 percent on trade paperback, 10 percent on mass market."

First: those were typos (now fixed). Second: they aren't my numbers (I do have a great agent). Third: I can't find my notes on where I got the damn numbers to start with. I will assume that Laurie's right, in which case I apologize profusely for making the situation sound worse and more depressing than it already is. Finally: the numbers were off, but the general way it all works (advances, pay out, etc) is on target.

Now I have to (a) feed the people and (b) the puppy boys and (c) I have to go cut up pieces of paper so I can draw one out of a hat. Hopefully I'll get that done sometime this evening.

November 15, 2005 03:18 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Maria Y Lima at November 17, 2005 03:31 AM

Posted by: Alison at November 19, 2005 08:30 AM

Posted by: Sara Donati at November 19, 2005 09:02 AM

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