Royalty rates for book publishers are changing. Recently we had the opportunity to hear two romance book publishers discuss their royalty policies.
Both publishers are paying royalties of 30% of list on direct eBook sales and 15% of list on indirect royalty rates. That means that if a customer purchases the eBook from Amazon the author recieves 15% of list, and if the order comes from the publishers own web-site the royalty is 30%.
Futhermore these publishers pay royalties monthly; as their are no returns on eBooks. The authors really appreciate this, as both publishers do not pay advances.
These publishers also offer time limited contracts, i.e. the contract is for a set period – say 5 or 7 years. After this period the author has the right to take his book elsewhere. One publisher has a clause that allows this at the end of the period if sales are less than a specified number of copies a year.
The other publisher does not place a limit on this, feeling that if an author is not happy he should have the right to change publishers.
