Under the agency model for eBook distribution the publisher establishes the price and allows the distributor to keep a fee; usually 30% of the price set by the publisher. The publisher receives 70% of the revenue. [Read more...]
eBook First Royalty Rates
January 29, 2010 By
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.
Rights & the International Kindle
October 15, 2009 By
How will digital editions affect international rights sales?
This is the question that the Publishers Weeklyarticle “Questions Mount Before Debut of International Kindle”; authored by Jim Millon and Rachel Deahl, discussed in its October 12th issue.
In summary, this article presented the view that availability of digital editions has increased the value of digital rights. This has increased the increased the pressure exerted by publishers to acquire these rights.
It also highlighted the fact that the value of territorial rights will be threatened as e-retailers sell their products into regions quicker than print editions are available.
Royalty Advances Declining
October 15, 2009 By
Advances paid to trade authors are down by 30% to 40%according to a panel discussion published in the October 5th issue of Publishers Weekly; Religion in Academic Publishing: The Agent View by Jana Reiss.
This view corresponds to what we are seeing in the market. Trade publishers are reducing the advances paid to authors, while royalty rates are staying the same.
Why? Its harder to predict how many books will sell and sales are down in many categories. Fewer bookstores, fewer readers, too many tiles, fewer book review sections in major publications are some reasons why sales forecasting is harder, and advances are generally based on the projected first year’s sales of a title.
iTunes Royalty Lawsuit #2
September 23, 2009 By
What’s the royalty due on an iTunes song sale? In a suit by Eninem a jury ruled for Sony that an iTunes song was the equivalent of a CD (i.e. royaltiesd were pennies on the dollar).
The Allman Brothers has sued UMG and Sony claiming that iTunes sales should be accounted for as a song license for a commercial – where the artist’s royalty would be about 50%.
According to www.techdirt.com the court refused to dismiss a lawsuit by the Allman Brothers against Universal Music Group.
Read the article:
New Online Radio Station Royalties
July 7, 2009 By
The New York Times reported that record labels and online radio stations have agreed to new royalty rates.
A summary of the new royalty rules for internet radio stations follows.
1. $25,000 annual minimum fee that can be applied against their royalties payable.
2. Online radio stations with revenue of less than $1.25 million will pay 12 to 14% of revenue for the right to stream music.
3. Online radio stations with revenue of $1.25 million or more will pay the greater of 25% of revenue or a fee per song that increases from 0.08 cent in 2008 to 0.14 cent in 2015.
4. Webcasters must provide detailed information about the songs that they play and how many listeners each song has to SoundExchange. They must keep these records for four years.
Romance Royalties – Print vs Digital
June 30, 2009 By
Royalty rate rates for print vs digital romance books are compared in an article posted at DearAuthor.com
The article summarizes the economic models that differentiate print and digital royalty rates for romance novels.
In summary, it states that print books are usually accompanied by a royalty advance and a low royalty rate of 8% to15%.
Digital book authors usually receive no royalty advances and a royalty rate that averages 35% to 40%. The article notes that only steamy sexy novels are selling well in a digital format.
With print books, though a lower royalty is paid, the author is likely to earn much more in terms of royalties.
The author closes her article by stating that ”digital publishing can be for those who are just starting out; for manuscripts that are gathering dust; for works that no one in NY wants to take a chance on.”
Microsoft Dynamics Royalty Software
June 11, 2009 By
A royalty solution for Microsoft Dynamics is available from United ERP. Their software can be deployed as a fullly intergrated module or deployed as a standalone system that integrates with your existing software.
United ERP is a Microsoft Partner specializing in Royalty Management Software and implementation for companies in entertainment, publishing, and merchandising. Their Royalty Management Solution monitors contracts, tracks the product development approval process, provides automatic royalty calculations, performs compliance checks with audit tracking, automates statement reporting and forecasting, and much more. It seamlessly creates the journal entries for the general ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable systems as well. It provides the toolset to for companies to actively manage and fully leverage their intellectual property by making more informed decisions based on real-time financial and market insight.
More information is available from their website: http://www.unitederp.com .
United ERP clients include Playboy Enterprises, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Studio 100, Codemasters and MGA Entertainment.
AXIP is multi-language/currency, Sarbanes-Oxley compliant and doesn’t require massive costs or implementation time while maintaining the unique way businesses are run, preserving their best practices. AX features two modules that provide total visibility for license-related activity, sales of licensed products and royalty payment history for both licensees and licensors.
BEA 2009 Hosted Royalty Software
May 29, 2009 By
Today at Book Expo America we visited three exhibiting vendors that offer hosted (software as a service) royalty software solutions.
Each vendor offers powerful software solutions that can be accessed via any personal computer - a PC or MAC – that has internet access. These SAS; software as a service, offerings eliminate the need for an IT staff to manage the software, train your staff and backup the data.
In summary;
- We found that The Media Services Group offering to be powerful and extremely easy to use.
- The Klopotek solution offers a wide range of integrated expansion options – editorial management, production management, title information, etc.
- Publishing Technology’s rights and royalties solution features end-user customization options and powerful work process controls.
- Each solution is comparably priced and highly scalable.
- Each solution offers integrated rights management functionality.
- Each solution on a highly scalable MS SQL or Oracle database engine.
If you are looking for a hosted royalty software we recommend that you 1) conduct a business process review to document your current and future requirements, 2) compare the functionality of each solution against your requirements and 3) select the one that best meets your requirements (after checking references).
Penguin Royalty Statement
May 6, 2009 By
Have you ever wondered what a large publisher royalty statement looks like?
The author of Twilight fall; Lynn Viehl, posted an analysis of her first royalty statement for this book along with the actual royalty statement on a blog entry at Genreality.net .
If you look at the Penguin royalty accounting statement you see that it provides the author with a detailed analysis of how her earnings are calculated.
It also provides the author with a historical summary. The historical summary shows prior period earnings, current peiod earnings and activity to date.
Furthermore, look in the subsidiary rights section. There the Penguin statements lists each subsidiary right sale seperately.
Royalty accounting is made easy with clear royalty statments such as the statements provided by Penguin.
