Hi everyone,
I have a question regarding royalties (no doubt I won't be the first to have asked about this!).
I know it's notoriously difficult, but does anyone know the average royalty deals for a print only publishing deal, an e-book only publishing deal, and a combined royalty deal?
Thanks for your help!
I get 50% on ebooks, but that's with a relatively small publisher. The Amazon 70% rate is only applicable to selling prices of $2.99 and above (or sterling equivalent) and not in every region they distribute to - less than this price and in Brazil, for example, it's 35%.
Smashwords pay 80% but that's s maximum figure and it depends on whether the book sells directly through them or one of the retailers they distribute to, such as Apple.
Commission on self-pub paperback sales can be reasonable, but it seems to me only if you do the whole thing, including setting up your own publishing company, yourself. Using an intermediary you'll be lucky to make £1 a copy on an £8.99 POD paperback.
Hope that doesn't deepen your depression too much. ;)
Yes, I'd heard about the 70% royalties, hard to compete with I suppose!
But I didn't know the average was 15-25%, that's very informative.
Thanks for all your help, and good luck with all your writing!
Traditionally published authors get 15-25% royalties on e-books - if they're lucky. Yet again the would-be author is ripped-off. The publisher invests little to nothing in the author and takes most of the profit..
The really bad news is that sales of would-be authors e-books are poor - less than a hundred copies. That's because most e-books are poorly-written by deluded would be authors. (like ourselves)
E-books benefit established authors the most. They get to sell their backlog of books for pennies, and in the process get to increase their readership.
There is good news regarding e-book sales for self-published authors on Amazon. The author gets 70% royalties.
I'm happy to have had this opportunity to gladden your hearts.