Royalty Statements: You Don't Need Them

K. Victoria Chase · Feb 17, 2013

I'm with a publisher who has decided to go against the language in the contract, that says authors will be provided monthly royalty statements, and not give us statements at all--just the check. This is now policy (That's another question I have. How to work around the contract by creating policy--for another thread). Reason being is the spreadsheet has just too much data with hundreds of line items because of so many third parties sellers, AND this publisher doesn't know of ANY publisher IN THE BUSINESS giving out individual statements to their authors. Some of us have asked for quarterly statements, which was suggested by the publisher, but it appears that that isn't what the publisher wants to do either. Publisher states they're working on a solution but it might not make everyone happy.

So I have to ask: Any other publishers come to mind that give royalty statements? This publisher wants to know...

firedrake · Feb 17, 2013

My publisher, Total E-Bound sends out detailed royalty statements on the first working day of every month, come hell or high water. They also pay royalties on the first working day of each month, without fail.

I loves them, yes I does.

thethinker42 · Feb 17, 2013

K. Victoria Chase said:
So I have to ask: Any other publishers come to mind that give royalty statements? This publisher wants to know...

I get detailed statements from every single one of my publishers. Samhain Publishing, Riptide Publishing, Carnal Passions/Champagne Books, Loose Id, Evernight Publishing, Total-E-Bound, Amber Quill Press...all of them. Some are quarterly, some are monthly. Some spell out the sales from each third party site, a couple of them don't, but at the very least, I get the number of copies sold, the gross receipts, and the amount due to me.

If a company suddenly decided it was too much trouble to produce statements per their contracts, I'd be inclined to decide it was too much trouble to continue working with them.

suki · Feb 17, 2013

So...they expect you to accept on faith that they accurately calculated what they owe you? And claim this is industry standard? <mind boggled>

Any other publishers come to mind that give royalty statements?

Yes. In fact, I haven't heard of a legitimate publisher who doesn't give out royalty statements...has anyone else? (I'm actually curious, as I thought royalty statements were industry standard, even for the smallest micro presses).

But more importantly, they are violating their contracts. If the contracts say they have to give you one, they can't just "change policy" (unless the contract gives them that right, too) to avoid part of the contract. So, read the contract carefully. If it says you get one, then you get one.

And be very suspicious of any company that tells you they can not or will not account for how they have decided what they owe you. Very suspicious.

~suki

K. Victoria Chase · Feb 17, 2013

Thank you for the quick responses, everyone. I really appreciate it. I've read and re-read the contract for that "we can change anything at anytime" clause and I haven't seen it, but I'll read it again--I might have missed it.

This publisher is expanding quickly and it sounds like they're struggling to stay ahead of the changes.

And yes, Suki, I guess I should just trust them. LOL. I do, but business is business and if money is exchanged, there needs to be an accounting for it. Here's hoping they decide on giving out numbers...

thethinker42 · Feb 17, 2013

K. Victoria Chase said:
Thank you for the quick responses, everyone. I really appreciate it. I've read and re-read the contract for that "we can change anything at anytime" clause and I haven't seen it, but I'll read it again--I might have missed it.

Call them out on it. Ask them to point you to the specific clause that allows them to do this.

Jersey Chick · Feb 17, 2013

My publishers all issue royalty statements - Samhain and Musa Publishing provide monthly statements, while The Wild Rose Press issues them quarterly. All provide a database where I can go retrieve my statements at any time for any time period (which was very useful when my laptop crashed and burned a year ago.)

thothguard51 · Feb 17, 2013

If they aren't keeping royalty statements, then how are they handling their taxes?

shadowwalker · Feb 17, 2013

thethinker42 said:
Call them out on it. Ask them to point you to the specific clause that allows them to do this.

This. If they're going to change the contract, the contract itself has to allow them to do that - and without your approval (that in itself sounds suspicious and quite frankly, wrong).

suki · Feb 17, 2013

K. Victoria Chase said:
And yes, Suki, I guess I should just trust them. LOL. I do, but business is business and if money is exchanged, there needs to be an accounting for it. Here's hoping they decide on giving out numbers...

LOL - I was being sarcastic. It is ludicrous to expect you to just trust them without any royalty statement. Mistakes get made, even by well-meaning people/companies, and that's why there are safeguards in contracts.

~suki

KimJo · Feb 17, 2013

Every single one of my publishers sends me a royalty statement each time they do royalties. (Some are monthly, some are quarterly.)

For those of you who like to know these things, I am with:
MLR Press/Passion in Print/Featherweight (3 imprints, one company; MLR and Passion in Print are romance, and Featherweight is YA. Quarterly statements. Sometimes I get separate statements for each imprint, sometimes it's all in one document.)

Pink Petal Books/Jupiter Gardens Press (2 imprints, one company; Pink Petal is romance and JGP is YA. Monthly both-in-one statements)

Siren Publishing (romance; quarterly statements)

Noble Romance (romance; monthly statements, even since they started shitting on their authors)

Ellora's Cave (romance; monthly statements)

Dreamspinner Press (romance; quarterly statements)

Oxton House Publishing (an educational publisher where I have a reading/phonics/comprehension series; quarterly statements)

Jamesaritchie · Feb 17, 2013

Every publisher I write for sends out royalty statements, but I don't write for e-publishers, so I'm in the dark there. But the publishers I do write also sell the books as e-books at some point, and still send out royalty statements.

I've never received monthly royalty statements, however, and this does seem like too much work. Most of mine come quarterly.

This really makes no sense. Surely the publisher knows how many copies of your book has sold. They have to know. You don't need to know where copy sells, only that it did sell, and the publisher has to know this, or they couldn't pay you at all.

Seriously, has this pubisher ever had anything to do with the publishing business? A publisher must know when one of its books sells, and sending you the count on a royalty statement is not a big deal.

VanessaNorth · Feb 17, 2013

Yes, I get royalty statements. My royalty statements from Liquid Silver Books give me number of copies sold per book (with vendor breakdown available by request).

My statements from Musa break it down by vendor, copies sold, copies returned, even which country my Amazon sales go to. They are very detailed and available for me to download for myself any time I feel like it.

Siri Kirpal · Feb 17, 2013

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

One of my publishers doesn't SEND a royalty statement. But I can go online and see exactly what's going on and see the results they post monthly.

The other publisher sends a statement with the check.

You should have access to the information one way or another.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Beachgirl · Feb 17, 2013

I'm with Siren Publishing and they send out detailed quarterly statements, complete with breakdowns from sales at third party sites. They also provide an online database where authors can get up-to-the-minute sales information for sales on the publisher's online bookstore. Our past royalty statements are also stored online, so we can retrieve them at any time.

I would not sign with a publisher who refused to provide royalty statements. And if they decided they no longer had to abide by the contract, I would likely decide not to abide by it, either.

amergina · Feb 17, 2013

My publisher sends me a monthly statement that breaks out sales by 3rd party sellers.

If they can't manage a monthly or quarterly statement because the spreadsheet is just too hard, how the heck are they going to be able to accurately pay you? They have to have those numbers to be able to calculate your royalties.

And, frankly, they're legally obligated to abide by the language of their contract.

Al Stevens · Feb 17, 2013

Wiley sends quarterly statements with a detailed sheet for each title.

Ask your publisher how they will respond when you bring your auditor in. Your contract should allow you to do that.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 17, 2013

amergina said:
If they can't manage a monthly or quarterly statement because the spreadsheet is just too hard, how the heck are they going to be able to accurately pay you? They have to have those numbers to be able to calculate your royalties.

That's a really good question, isn't it? I guess you're supposed to trust that they'll find a way, or that they can guess really, really well.

frimble3 · Feb 17, 2013

If they can just change the terms of the contract, without your approval, what's to stop them from changing the royalty they're paying? Or the length of the contract.
"We've unilaterally decided that you, and all your future works, are with us for life."

thethinker42 · Feb 17, 2013

frimble3 said:
If they can just change the terms of the contract, without your approval, what's to stop them from changing the royalty they're paying? Or the length of the contract.
"We've unilaterally decided that you, and all your future works, are with us for life."

Exactly. The whole point of a contract is for everyone to know what the terms are. If someone can change it on a whim, then there's no point in having a contract, and I would definitely not want to do business with them.

G. Applejack · Feb 17, 2013

Would you be so kind as to PM me the name of this publisher? This is all bad news and I don't want to make the mistake of subbing to them, or pull my manuscript if I have.

williemeikle · Feb 17, 2013

K. Victoria Chase said:
...this publisher doesn't know of ANY publisher IN THE BUSINESS giving out individual statements to their authors.

Every publisher I've ever worked with has given out individual statements, and I wouldn't work with a publisher who didn't.

veinglory · Feb 17, 2013

If they know what they owe you, they know what you sold. They need to get proper IT staff who can get it to print out on a statement.

victoriastrauss · Feb 17, 2013

K. Victoria Chase said:
So I have to ask: Any other publishers come to mind that give royalty statements? This publisher wants to know...

A publisher should ALWAYS provide a royalty statement, and the publishing contract should specifically require it to do so and provide a schedule for doing so. Without a royalty statement, you have no way of keeping track of your sales and payments--or of holding the publisher to account if things go wrong.

I don't buy the "too much data" argument. There must be software for this sort of thing--or the publisher should hire a designer to set up a system for it. This just sounds incredibly unprofessional. What it tells me is that this publisher's bookkeeping is a mess--which means that it's not just statements; it may be that your payments aren't accurate. (If so, how handy to get rid of royalty statements.)

If the contract requires the publisher to provide statements and it ceases to do so, it's in breach of its obligations.

Who is the publisher? Contact me at beware [at] sfwa.org. All information shared with Writer Beware is held in confidence.

- Victoria

K. Victoria Chase · Feb 17, 2013

LOL - I was being sarcastic.

HEHE, I got it. Me too.

Ask your publisher how they will respond when you bring your auditor in. Your contract should allow you to do that.

The contract does call for it and no clue how they will handle it.

If they aren't keeping royalty statements, then how are they handling their taxes?

They keep track of numbers, they're just not handing them out.

Update: For those of us that made a lil' stink of it on facebook, we were told if we really want them, we could email the marketing director who will send us the statements. Sadly, I think many authors won't because you know how people like to excuse things...

I understand they're going through a growth spurt, but I maintain that anticipating the need for a bookkeeper separate from yourself (like an Editor in Chief doing most the work) is a must if you know you're growing (and I've suggested they hire one or a team). At some point, you have to hire more people to meet obligations or you have to severely limit your business growth model. I'll be watching closely to see how quickly they make a decision on whether they move to quarterly statements or not.

I do want to emphasize that the publisher isn't at all being nasty about it nor do they appear to have any other motive other than it's an enormous amount of work and they've got so many other things going on because of growth. No excuse, I know. Thank you for all the responses and I'll keep you posted!

Royalty Statements: You Don't Need Them

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