Article on average book earnings & royalties

Very interesting. Thanks for the link.

With a median advance of $40K, I see that Ballentine are the lucky folks whom I will allow to inflict my magnum opus upon the world. If they're too short-sighted, then I will consider HarperCollins and Bantam/Dell. Fat City, here I come!

On another note: Harlequin NASCAR? That's a subgenre I would not have expected.

Great find, thanks for sharing it!

Does n/a mean (in this case) that the information is not available?

Keep in mind that those numbers are primarily for the romance genre. Lit fic, fantasy, or other genre numbers may be very different.

What does "average earn-out" mean?

And wow, I wasn't interested in selling digital, but with those mid-2 digit royalties compared to the measly 1 digit royalties traditional publishers pay...

I didn't realize publishers were that cheap.

Seconding Jennontheisland that there's a huge difference between the genres, and also between hardcover/trade PB/mass market paperback. I think that 10%-12.5% is more typical for hardcover royalties. It still doesn't approach the digital publishers, but a huge cut of a print book goes to the retailer, and another huge cut goes to the cost of printing, so I don't consider it too stingy.

Epublishers typically don't sell anywhere near the volume of print. You may be getting 35% but you'll be lucky to sell 1000 books.

Veinglory's EREC site tracks sales of romance/erotica. Have a look if you want to see digital numbers.

http://www.erecsite.com/SALES.html

When I see the word "average" I'm always reminded of the man who spent his time with his head in the oven and his feet in the freezer. . .on average, he was very comfortable.

I'd rather know what the median advance is, not the average.

Shadow_Ferret said:

What does "average earn-out" mean?

And wow, I wasn't interested in selling digital, but with those mid-2 digit royalties compared to the measly 1 digit royalties traditional publishers pay...

I didn't realize publishers were that cheap.

Click to expand...

To be fair, traditional publishers also pay you a large chunk up front, which isn't the case with a digital publisher.

You can end up making the same money (some EC/Samhain folks are pulling in way more money than some romance midlisters) but the main difference with the money is that NY pays up front -- and royalties are pretty much considered gravy.

Jamesaritchie said:

When I see the word "average" I'm always reminded of the man who spent his time with his head in the oven and his feet in the freezer. . .on average, he was very comfortable.

I'd rather know what the median advance is, not the average.

Click to expand...

The median temperature of his body parts was probably OK as well. Their standard deviation, on the other hand....



(Libbie's probably going to come along in a minute and call me a nerd again.)

Shadow_Ferret said:

What does "average earn-out" mean?

And wow, I wasn't interested in selling digital, but with those mid-2 digit royalties compared to the measly 1 digit royalties traditional publishers pay...

I didn't realize publishers were that cheap.

Click to expand...

I think somebody else already said it, but consider that a mass-market edition of your book can sell hundreds of thousands of copies (or at least tens of thousands) while the ebook edition sells in the neighborhood of a few thousand. If you're lucky.

Currently, of course. I've noticed a pretty steep climb in ebook sales over the last two or three books; on my last statement, one book earned over $20k in ebook royalties. Of course, the same book earned a healthy six figures in print royalties over the same period.

jennontheisland said:

Epublishers typically don't sell anywhere near the volume of print. You may be getting 35% but you'll be lucky to sell 1000 books.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

But, as I said, that's currently. Nobody really knows what the market will do, or how the ratio of print to ebook sales will shift as time passes. The larger ebook royalty percentage takes into account the lower cost the publisher has to bear (no printing, shipping, or storage costs, for instance).

But if the ebook market continues to grow, and takes up a bigger slice of the earnings pie, you can bet publishers will find a way to whittle away at that now-larger ebook royalty.

Seriously. Bet money now.