Publishing Journey: Royalties

In a book contract, the royalties section comes right after the advance section. They go hand in hand. The advance is the money you get in advance of the book being published. Royalties are monies you get after the book is published. The advance is paid “against your earnings,” meaning you don’t start getting royalty payments until you sell enough books to “pay off” your advance.

Example: You receive a $20,000 advance. The book is published in hard cover at a price of $20. According to your contract, you get 10% of each book sold, or $2 per book. So, you’d have to sell 10,000 books to “pay off” your advance. If your book doesn’t sell 10,000 copies, you don’t have to return money to the publisher, but it’s unlikely they’ll want to publish you again because you effectively lost money for them. Let’s try to think positive though and assume you’ll sell a million copies. Okay? Okay.

Royalty percentages are fairly standard for first-time writers, with a little wiggle room depending on the deal you get. My book will come out in hard cover (YAY!) and I will get 10% on each of the first 5,000 copies sold. So, if the book is priced at $25, I’ll get $2.50 from each sale. Many people argue that writers get ripped off with this type of traditional arrangement. I wrote the thing, but $22.50 of each sale goes to other people? True, but the thing is, big publishing houses have the ability to market your book in a way you couldn’t do alone (unless you are extremely lucky, extremely talented with marketing, or a celebrity). By self-publishing, I’d earn way more on each book sold, but I’d sell way, way fewer books. Or that’s the theory. Maybe I’ll change my tune in a year. We shall see.

Anyway, the royalty rate increases as sales increase. Effectively, the publishing house rewards you for selling more copies. After getting 10% on the first 5,000 copies sold, I’ll get 12.5% on the next 5,000 copies sold. And after the 10,000 copies mark, I’ll get 15% of every sale. When the book goes to paperback, I’ll get 7.5% of every sale, regardless of copies sold.

The contract details royalty rates for every possible edition of your book–mass market paperback, electronic, audio, etc, etc. It’s all very business-like because, ultimately, this publishing thing IS A BUSINESS. It’s funny because so much about the business stifles creativity, and creativity is what made the business in the first place. I have to admit that it’s hard to work on my new novel (yes, I’ve started something new) without thinking, “Is there any point to working on this? If my book doesn’t sell enough copies, they’re not gonna publish this new thing” or “Will this new story even appeal to my publisher? It’s kind of a downer.”  But, it always comes back to this: I need to write, and I don’t have much control over the stories that interest me. I’ve always continued to write, even when I’ve gotten rejection letters that sent me back to square one. I’m just really hoping this book does well so the floodgates can open for all the stories I have to share. In the meantime, I write, write, write because I don’t know any other way.