Re: consequences of shift to ebooks

--- In [email protected], "Tony Burton" <beirdd@...> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "Kent S. Larsen II" <kent@>
wrote:
> > 
> > Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you somehow, but, perhaps the
misunderstanding comes 
> from how royalties are paid. US publishers mostly pay a percentage
of the cover price, not 
> of the actual sale price to the customer or retailer.
> > 
> > 
> > Neither does the author of most US publishers. The author gets the
same amount -- 
> 10% of the cover price set by the publisher -- for every sale. It
doesn't matter if the 
> publisher gave the wholesaler a 50% discount (near what is normal)
or charged a premium.
> > 
> 
> Those are both fallacious statements.  There are as many different
ways of calculating 
> royalty as there are lawyers working for Simon and Schuster. 
Sometimes it's percentage of 
> cover, sometimes it's percentage of Gross, sometimes of Net,
sometimes X% up to 1000 
> copies, and Y% for sales above that... and in many cases, if you
read the fine print in the 
> contract, there are provisions that actually DO reduce the royalty
if the publisher has to 
> take a price cut to get the book into a particular market, etc.  Not
always, but it does 
> happen all too frequently.  (By the way, I'm a publisher and I hang
out with publishers and 
> people in the publishing business.)
> 

Again, you are nitpicking. While technically correct, your statements
are outside the scope of the original question -- why royalties are
calculated in % instead of in flat rate.

I'm giving general cases, and my statements hold true for the most
common sales on trade books from a vast range of publishers. Yes,
academic, educational, professional and technical publishers use
somewhat different situations. Trade publishers also have regular
exceptions.

But the majority of sales through bookstores happen under that general
rule.


> 
> > The reason that the author generally wants a royalty instead of a
fixed payment is 
> because the number of copies is potentially unlimited. Instead of
getting $1,000 for his 
> manuscript, the author gets 10% of the $14.95 cover price for each
copy that the 
> publisher manages to sell. The only thing that the percentage does
is change the amount 
> per copy IF the cover price changes.
> > 
> 
> ALMOST true.  

Another nitpick.

Please let it go. I spent 10 years of my career doing royalties and
accounting for Henry Holt & Co. and Bantam Doubleday Dell and a small
children's book publisher, North-South Books. I still do royalties for
my own authors.

I don't want to write a book with all the exceptions and practices
just to explain that why a % is generally better than a fixed price,
and why getting just one amount up front isn't as attractive as
getting an advance for that same amount and potential royalties if the
book sells better than expected.

The exceptions you are mentioning weren't germane to the question, so
I left them out.

Kent






------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
------------------------------------------------------- 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/