A question about PUBLISHING and BOOK DEALS?

Question

I've got my 1st book coming out next month and the bookshop Waterstones are putting it in there 3 for 2 Summer Promotion.

does this mean that the book will be sold cheaper and I'll get less royalties?

dont know what you mean about libraries I AM guaranteed royalties, i got an agent and he sorted it.

once the publisher have covered costs I start getting 10%, going up to 16%max depending on how many sell

dont know what you mean about libraries I AM guaranteed royalties, i got an agent and he sorted it.

once the publisher have covered costs I start getting 10%, going up to 16%max depending on how many sell

Answer 1

Well normally when you publish a book the retailer gets about 50%, while the author gets 25%, then there are costs and the publishing house keeps the rest.

Now waterstones is the retailer, and then would have signed a deal to buy the book at a certain wholesale price. They can easily reduce the price by 10, 20, 30, 40%, pay the wholesale price and still make money. So they shouldn't affect your cut.

Maybe they did a deal with the publisher to buy the book at a cheaper price. But that shouldn't affect your cut.

Of course, I would suggest you read your contract and see what the specifics are. Because you may have a deal where you get a certain % of the retail price, rather than a certain amount per book.

Only slightly related to this, the author of the book Forrest Gump sign a deal with a movie studio for percentage of net that the movie made (that is profit). After the movie grossed 600 Million he realised he should have request percentage of gross.

Publishers don't make money from cheating authors. Once they get a reputation for cheating people or stealing copyright, they will have trouble finding quality authors, so we can assume they are doing the right thing by you.

Answer 2

Your royalties stay the same no matter how they discount the price because your royalty percentage is off the regular price of the book (the price that's on the spine/inside flap). So if Amazon sells it cheaper than Borders, it doesn't matter to you. You get the same amount no matter what.

That's the way all the major NYC publishers do it. If it's a small publisher, it might be different.

Answer 3

Just because you have a book published does not gurantee that you will receive royalties. The book has to be in x amount of libraries before you will get any royalties. Royalties are put in place to compensate the author for having your book or books in libraries. In Australia the book has to be in 150 libraries, so I sent out copies of my second book to 200 libraries, but they weren't the libraries that were surveyed by the organization, or government department who carries out thewse surveys.

Answer 4

If you have an agent, he must have negotiated the deal and you must have read and signed the deal. Ask him and ask your publisher.

Answer 5

This is a question for your publisher and/or agent.

Answer 6

idk