Re: consequences of shift to ebooks

--- In [email protected], "auwg" <auwg@...> wrote:
>> Why author-guesstimate at all?
> (Count chickens before they're hatched?)
> Let the pubber worry about how many copies to print.
> Plunk that title out there and count the presidents as they arrive.
> The IRS tends to want hard numbers, not estimates.
> My friend got her advance in '04 and received chargebacks in '05.
> All that did was add to her tax paperwork. Hm. Twice over, come to
> think of it, since she lives in VA. State income tax, too.
> Ed Howdershelt - Abintra Press

Well, the reason is that it is generally a benefit to the author, not
to the publisher.

Simply put, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow.

If I get an advance, I can use the money now.

If I don't get an advance, I have to wait until it comes, usually 3-6
months AFTER the end of the six month period in which the sale
happened. So, the advance happens usually a year or more before the
royalties would arrive.

As for chargebacks, you seem to believe that they happen more
frequently than they do in my experience. In more than 10 years of
working in the accounting departments of several different large New
York publishers, I never saw significant chargebacks to authors --
certainly not on the level of 20%!! And those I did see were for
things that the author could control -- usually providing an index for
a non-fiction book.

Now, I'm NOT including returns on sales  as chargebacks. They are NOT
chargebacks. They are a reduction in sales paid previously. At most
publishers they can not reduce the amount of an advance paid.

Of course, publishers and contracts vary. It is possible that some
publishers do have significant chargebacks. And I do know that this
kind of chargeback is typical in the recorded music industry.

So, I'm not sure why you think that this would benefit authors. But,
if that's what you want, I am sure that most publishers would be
willing to accomodate you.

Kent






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