My wife is a published author (and ghost writer) and my sister-in-law is a VP and acquisitions editor for a small publishing house. The different between 30% a

My wife is a published author (and ghost writer) and my sister-in-law is a VP and acquisitions editor for a small publishing house. The different between 30% and 75% is mostly historical, and the app market vs. the publishing world run on different models: There is not really an equivalent of advances or physical publishing in the app world. Royalties and app revenue splits are are roughly equivalent, though. As an author, your leverage on advances and royalties is your personal brand equity. "Becoming" by Michelle Obama is almost an automatic winner due to her brand. If you're not well known, your publishing deal is abysmally standard. It costs some money to print and distribute a physical book vs. a digital book. This is slowly changing as digital distribution flexes up. But print is still the preferred model for people. [1] And there are additional layers of writing a book in the traditional model: acquisitions, developmental and copy editing being some of the big ones. And you'd be shocked how many non-fiction books have a ghost writer. Finally, there's the reality that the publisher is taking a risk: their high percentages are covering all the books they took a loss on. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/19/physical-books-still-outsell-e-books-and-heres-why.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/19/physical-books-still-outsell...