Sandy's Soapbox

Print royalties typically are 10% (but you usually get an advance of $1-10K). eBook royalties in early days on the web were often a 50/50 split between author and publisher. The current trend for most eBook publishers is now 25% author/75% publisher. Which explains why so many people self-publish.

My current case— going with a new book from a technical non-fiction publisher I've worked with before, my original eBook royalty rate was 50% with no advance up-front. But that was years ago and negotiated as a one-off because it was a new book line, and because I volunteered to enter the book directly into their web-based publishing system (and comply with their formatting/mark-up standards).

For this new book, same publisher, the good news is they are offering a $1K advance. The downside is they are only offering 15% for eBook royalties. I've confirmed that major publishers tend to pay 25% as standard. Also, the long-ago 50% is very hard to find, even with small publishers.

Just more data for you writers to chew on.

Until next month,
Sandy

sandy@rpg.net, freelance