View Single Post
Old 02-02-2010, 06:20 PM   #15
starrigger
Jeffrey A. Carver
starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.starrigger ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
starrigger's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,355
Karma: 1107383
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Massachusetts, USA
Device: Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus, Droid phone, Nook HD+
Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk View Post
I'm sure the authors will let us know which system screws them more.
The answer is...I'm not sure.

Book contracts vary in how they share ebook earnings with the author. Macmillan's split is reportedly 20-25% of net receipts, yet my ebook royalties with Tor (a Macmillan company) are set just like hardcover royalties, at 10-15% of suggested retail cover price.

With the old system at Amazon, I don't even know what that means. We don't know what the suggested retail price is; maybe it's the hardcover price, maybe it isn't. We just know what Amazon charges.

With the agency model, we'll know that figure. My suspicion is that the net to the author will be less. But it's complicated, because we don't know how overall sales will be affected, including the possible loss (or gain!) of hardcover sales, and we don't know the affect of adding a new, potentially major bookstore to the picture.

There's another factor, too, that's almost impossible to quantify. Publishing is an industry that's struggling. The ability of publishers to take risks on new authors and midlist authors depends in large part on their making higher profits on the bestsellers. So, if you look at benefits to authors as a class (and the reading public that wants diversity, not just bestsellers), there's something to be said for publishers making higher profits.

The Authors Guild and Richard Curtis (literary agent and publisher of E-reads) have both said they expect the author share of ebook net to go up, under pressure from agents. We'll see. E-reads right now pays 50% of net to authors, double what the Big Six pay.
starrigger is offline   Reply With Quote