Decoding Royalty Statements

[Garpy]

Recieved my first 'proper' one today. The previous one had little to show as it was really just showing the advance slices already paid out.

This one, on the other hand, now shows the pattern of 6 months worth of sales, and boy is it a bugger to understand.

But, what I really want to share with you though is a sobering truth; how little money you earn as an author. Without going into too much detail, I've got total UK sales on my debut novel not far short of 50k copies, and I'm looking at less royalty money than I'd get from stacking shelves in a supermarket, part time.

Unless I'm reading this statement all wrong, if you want writing to be your sole income, I'd say you need to be breaking sales of about 150k copies a year.

*sigh*

[seun]

Cheers, Alex. You've now depressed me.

I'll see your sigh and raise you a oh,shit.

[Jamesaritchie]

Did you receive a check along with the royalty statement, or has the advance not been paid off yet?

My first royalty check is usually a straight 10% of cover price, and follows number of sales on the royalty statement very closely. So 50K sales gives me pretty decent money, even in paperback, and very good money in hardcover.

The publisher does usually underestimate the number of sales on that first statement as a hedge against returns, but this is normal, and is corrected when royalty time rolls around again.

[maestrowork]

I know I can't make a living off my royalties yet, but still, I appreciate the checks. :) It's more a symbol than anything -- it's a first step for me.

As for the statements, mine are pretty clear. What troubled me was usually the returns, but I know that's just part of the business. But I definitely don't like to see those numbers.

[triceretops]

Uh, I kind of thought 50,000 copies sold was pretty damn good for even MMP. It does depend on your publisher. Hardcover and $1.50 or so per copy (royalty) is cookin'.

Tri

[roger]

Ah, but you earned out your advance? That's pretty damn good - and rare, I believe. My agent told me that some agents consider it a sign of failure if their authors get to earn royalties as it shows they didn't negotiate a big enough advance. He doesn't subscribe to that view himself!

Sales of 50K! Magnificent, well done, fantastic!

(By the way were you at the Heffers crime event in the summer? I was there but a bit overwhelmed by numbers.)

[Garpy]

You mean 'Bodies in the Bookshop'...yeah I was there. I was over on the left hand side (looking at the store from the street). It was quite busy....and quite depressing watching a horde of authors pimping their books like fruit n' veg salesmen to the few wandering punters. :-)

[Joe Moore]

An important factor to keep your eye on is sell-through. That's the percentage of books that were shipped and paid for. Most believe that a sell-through of 50% or less could signal trouble. Check your statement. It should tell you the copies printed, shipped, sold, and returned. Divide the number of copies paid for by the number shipped to determine sell-through. So if you had 100k shipped and 50k were paid for, you have a 0.50 or 50% sell-through.

[Garpy]

yes, thank god the returns seem to be relatively low. Mind you....I've been pretty active on the book signing front. As an editor recently told me - 'a book signed...is a book sold.'

[jenstrikesagain]

Hey, I'll make a plug for my profession here: If you can scrape together the money have an entertainment lawyer look that thing over. Unless it's thousands of pages, it shouldn't take more than an hour or so, which for most lawyers in my area would be around $150-$200. Your local bar association can refer you to somebody or you can ask friends. I'm a paralegal of the non-entertainment variety and I haven't a clue what "ancillary rights" are except that you need them.

[Jamesaritchie]

Hey, I'll make a plug for my profession here: If you can scrape together the money have an entertainment lawyer look that thing over. Unless it's thousands of pages, it shouldn't take more than an hour or so, which for most lawyers in my area would be around $150-$200. Your local bar association can refer you to somebody or you can ask friends. I'm a paralegal of the non-entertainment variety and I haven't a clue what "ancillary rights" are except that you need them.



If you have a good agent, she can also explain all these terms. It's her job to know all about rights, and to secure the ones you should have.

[roger]

You mean 'Bodies in the Bookshop'...yeah I was there. I was over on the left hand side (looking at the store from the street). It was quite busy....and quite depressing watching a horde of authors pimping their books like fruit n' veg salesmen to the few wandering punters. :-)

Yes, bodies in the bookshop. It wasn't a situation I felt comfortable in, though I did have a good friendly chat with a few of the authors. Another lady blocked my way and hectored me into picking up one of her books. It was cosy crime, which is not really my bag. She was quite pushy, in a smiling old lady way. I declined.

There certainly seemed to be more authors than punters. As you say, though, it was an opportunity to put some ink on stock.

[Garpy]

Uggh...tell me about it. I'm not a big fan of stodgy old school crime novels. In fact, crime in general bores me. When it gets good, is when someone finds a bloody good new angle. But sadly, it's amazing how many UK crime writers are peddling a series about a 'DCI Blahblah' with some major neurosis, a drink problem, an empty fridge and a broken marriage.

Anyway...we should make a note to hook up next 'Bodies'. Go for a pint and a curry afterwards.

[roger]

If I get asked back, it would certainly be good to hook up.

[Maprilynne]

Oh lord I feel really ignorant right now. I know what a pint is (duh!;)) but what's a curry?

Sorry it's off topic.:)

[Garpy]

Oh lord I feel really ignorant right now. I know what a pint is (duh!;)) but what's a curry?

Sorry it's off topic.:)

:Jaw:
Seriously?

[seun]

Oh lord I feel really ignorant right now. I know what a pint is (duh!;)) but what's a curry?

Sorry it's off topic.:)

'Tis the food of the Gods. Goes well with a few bottles of Cobra or Kingfisher.


...Luke quietly fancying takeaway tonight...

[matdonna]

I have some questions about terms in royalty statements.

For each of my husband's and my books from the small specialized publisher we are with, the royalty statement for each book has several line items under "product # & description". I'm pretty vague on what these mean, anyone get what these all mean, or is some of it code or abbreviation peculiar to my own publisher?

MIDPOINT (I've heard the term, is Midpoint a distributor?)

LONDON

AUSTRALIA

(okay, I know the publisher has distributors in the UK & Australia)

On one of the books (an older one in a series), as well as Midpoint and London, they had

POD
AUSTRALIA POD
AFR
AFR POD
LSI direct sales

Th statement for this book also noted (small print run/POD) at a lower royalty rate than all our other books, even though there were some POD items on some of the other statements.

Okay, I know about POD, print on demand-- Possibly I haven't paid attention to previous royalty statements, but I think the publisher did not always use Print on Demand and does not generally use it for the first printing anyway. It appears to me that after having sold out the previous printings they are now doing some smaller print runs by POD to meet a smaller but continuing demand for some of the older books, which makes sense.

So I am just trying to figure out the various headings. Is AFR a POD company? what's LSI? What does direct sales mean in this context?

Is there a publishing terms glossary somewhere for these sorts of things? I googled, but what I turned up didn't help me with "AFR" and "LSI" at least...

[sanctuary6284]

I found an example of a royalty statement and I understand it about as much as quantum mechanics. Could someone please explain a little bit of this. Thanks in advance. https://business.thomasnelson.com/Information/RoyaltyStatement.jsp