Got a contract offer from a digital publisher. Some of the terms make me VERY anxious. Some of them I'm not crazy about, but I think I can work around/live with. But I won't go into those. I'll start with the basics: what is the average royalty rate for an ebook publisher? Please specify if you're talking net profits or not. In other words, if the author gets 50% of net profits on a $9.99 book, Amazon gets 30% ($3.00), Publisher gets 35% ($3.50), author gets 35% ($3.50).
What's a good royalty rate for an eBook publisher contract?
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My publisher's rates are 40% of cover from sales directly from their online store and 50% net from sales at third party sites.
Net means that after the percentage is taken out, everything else, like Amazon and other sites and whatever else is in the pot takes out of that portion, your portion. So it all depends on what exactly gets taken out. You should ask the publisher what is it exactly that gets deducted from that percentage.
Cover price is exactly that. If it's 30% and your book is 9.99 you get 3 dollars for every book.
Be careful when it says net.
Cover price is exactly that. If it's 30% and your book is 9.99 you get 3 dollars for every book.
Be careful when it says net.
Yep. Make sure the contract spells out what is deducted. In my case, Amazon (or whatever third-party site) will deduct their percentage off the cover price and I get 50% of the remainder. I've heard some publishers are deducting for things like "administrative and marketing" costs before they calculate the author's percentage. I would run away from any contract that had those terms.
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Net's pretty standard with e-first publishers, and is usually (always, in my experienced) defined as the full amount the publisher receives for the book. So it'd be cover price for books sold from their website, 70% of cover from books sold at Amazon, etc.
You should be careful with it, just like you should be careful with everything else in your contract, but I don't think getting a percentage of net should set off the same alarm bells for e-publishers that it would for print publishers.
"but I don't think getting a percentage of net should set off the same alarm bells for e-publishers that it would for print publishers."
Exactly. There are plenty of good publishers out there that do the net thing. Good advice on the contract thing too. There's so many things to it, make sure you understand what you're getting into.
Exactly. There are plenty of good publishers out there that do the net thing. Good advice on the contract thing too. There's so many things to it, make sure you understand what you're getting into.
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My publisher's rates are 40% of cover from sales directly from their online store and 30 % of cover sales from third party. Oh and 8% of cover for the print version of the book when that comes out in November.
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The vast majority of them do the net thing. I'm lucky I have one book with someone who doesn't.
Oh yeah I think my other publisher is 40% of net.
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I was under the impression that most print publishers were only offering about 25% of net ?Which admitted does not sound good especially when you need an agent for a lot of print publishers but I don't really know. Please do correct me anyone that knows better.
I had an editor randomly contact me on Twitter asking if I had anything for him to look at. Checking up on his publisher's contracts they was offer 10% of net for print which seemed to be mostly what his company did (print) which did not sound good, but again it may not be unusual (?) I don't really know with print except that I'll be getting 8% of cover when mine comes out and that my editor said the vast majority of my sales would probably be digital. (ie...don't get too excited about going to print.)
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Royalty rates at print publishers do tend to be a lot lower, but, yeah, they would traditionally be percentage of cover price. I guess you get less per book, but are expected to sell more books.
And my books with print versions don't sell many copies of the print version, usually - maybe one print for every twenty digital, approximately. I think it makes sense - with little to no bookstore distribution, there really isn't much access to the print books unless people are such hardcore print fans that they'll order them online and wait for the shipping time.
ETA: The royalty rates I've heard for print-first publishers are 15% for hardcover, 7.5% for paperback, but I haven't got any personal experience in this field so I wouldn't swear by those numbers!
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Yeah sorry when I said 25% of net I meant that I've heard print first publishers often pay 25% of net on the ebook versions of books. And their new digital first lines like Avon Impulse pay 25% of net.
Print itself would be a lot less I guess because of print being so expensive. I mean my digital first publisher is paying me 30% of cover price for third party sales but it will be 8% of cover on my print book when it comes out.
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This is only tangentially related, but here goes anyway. I finally decided (for the very, very few books I publish that are not by myself) to pay the same dollar figure on e-book sales as on the trade paperback edition. (I don't do hardbacks.) So if I'm paying royalty of 10% of a list price of $15 (that is, $1.50) on trade paperback, I'm paying $1.50 on e-book, regardless of what percentage that is of e-book price (it will be well over 10% of price, and way more than 10% of net). Seems straightforward, and the author need not be concerned about format, as he or she is getting the same dollar figure for a sale in either format. And it simplifies bookkeeping for me.
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Two quick questions:
What royalty rate (range) do big six publishers usually pay for e-books?
Would a big six publisher publish something ONLY as ebook, not in print?
What royalty rate (range) do big six publishers usually pay for e-books?
Would a big six publisher publish something ONLY as ebook, not in print?
Random House ebook imprints offers a choice of a 50/50 split of net profits with no advance or a more traditional choice of receiving an advance but with a 25% royalty.
The same ebook imprint contracts have the option to produce print editions if they desire, although if you pick the 50/50 split option, the author must pay for the manufacturing and distribution costs before receiving a royalty.
It is my belief that if the ebook has good sales, Random House will indeed produce a print edition, especially since they have locked in a higher profit margin by making the author pay for the production costs.
The same ebook imprint contracts have the option to produce print editions if they desire, although if you pick the 50/50 split option, the author must pay for the manufacturing and distribution costs before receiving a royalty.
It is my belief that if the ebook has good sales, Random House will indeed produce a print edition, especially since they have locked in a higher profit margin by making the author pay for the production costs.
I feel cheated. 
35% Net here. But it's only 15% net on paperback. And I thought that was a good deal.
Jeff
35% Net here. But it's only 15% net on paperback. And I thought that was a good deal.
Jeff
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Well I'll be only getting 8% of cover on print. I get 35% of cover on third party sales. Honestly your contract doesn't sound that bad in terms of the full range of what is offered. The Big Six such as Random House, and Avon are all only offering 25% of net. Possibly because they are the Big Six they will sell more copies but this has yet to be proven.I feel cheated.
35% Net here. But it's only 15% net on paperback. And I thought that was a good deal.
Jeff
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All the Big 6 NY publishers appear to be offering around 25% of net for their new digital first lines. The inference being because of their big name and experience the amount you sell will make up for the lower royalties. It is too early to know how this will all pan out for authors.
Forgive my ignorance I'm new to all this. What advantages are there going to an e-publisher over going it alone throught KDP?
Editing, design, distribution, sales force, marketing, promotional pushes, reputation... all that sort of thing. It can add up to a lot of sales.
And instead of spending all that time doing all of the things Old Hack mentioned, I get to spend that time writing my next book. And that results in lots more sales.
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Also some epublishers have a built in fan base of the publisher because of the type of books they are known for selling and the quality level of those chosen, so fans of the publisher will try an unknown first time author while buying their other favorite authors on the publisher's website, just because they trust that publisher to publish quality books.
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