4 ms·

> Hence, I feel the journalist has a valid point. Laura Bush will command higher royalties. So, the price to the publisher is increased (via higher royalties/ad

by whopa 17y ago

> Hence, I feel the journalist has a valid point. Laura Bush will command higher royalties. So, the price to the publisher is increased (via higher royalties/advances), because Laura Bush provides desirable content. Is it really true that different authors can have wildly different royalty rates? I thought the range only spanned a few percentage points. Advances don't really count, since they are paid out of future royalties.

TomOfTTB 17y ago
Of course it's true that authors make wildly different royalty rates. Does anyone here really believe Stephen King makes the same royalty rates per book as someone like Uwem Akpan? It's simple market economics. Stephen King will sell far more copies which means publishers will make far more money off his books. So he gets a significantly higher cut of the per book profit (aka royalties) because publishers will still end up making more money off his book than they will of a Uwem Akpan book. Put it this way, if Mr. King's publisher didn't pay him a higher royalty fee don't you think another publisher would be willing to based on the large amount of money at stake? So again we're back to basic economics.
- whopa 17y ago
  Got a source for Stephen King's royalty rates being significantly above the standard rates for other authors? Everything I've found says royalties range from 10-15% for hardcover, like http://www.writersservices.com/res/ri_adv_royalties.htm http://www.writersservices.com/res/ri_adv_royalties.htm: "hardback royalties on the published price of trade books usually range from 10% to 12.5%, with 15% for more important authors" You talk about simple market economics, but the publishing industry seems to be a cartel, and authors are on the whole largely shafted. The music industry is the same way...

4 ms·

> Hence, I feel the journalist has a valid point. Laura Bush will command higher royalties. So, the price to the publisher is increased (via higher royalties/ad

by whopa 17y ago

TomOfTTB 17y ago
Of course it's true that authors make wildly different royalty rates. Does anyone here really believe Stephen King makes the same royalty rates per book as someone like Uwem Akpan? It's simple market economics. Stephen King will sell far more copies which means publishers will make far more money off his books. So he gets a significantly higher cut of the per book profit (aka royalties) because publishers will still end up making more money off his book than they will of a Uwem Akpan book. Put it this way, if Mr. King's publisher didn't pay him a higher royalty fee don't you think another publisher would be willing to based on the large amount of money at stake? So again we're back to basic economics.
- whopa 17y ago
  Got a source for Stephen King's royalty rates being significantly above the standard rates for other authors? Everything I've found says royalties range from 10-15% for hardcover, like http://www.writersservices.com/res/ri_adv_royalties.htm http://www.writersservices.com/res/ri_adv_royalties.htm: "hardback royalties on the published price of trade books usually range from 10% to 12.5%, with 15% for more important authors" You talk about simple market economics, but the publishing industry seems to be a cartel, and authors are on the whole largely shafted. The music industry is the same way...