Do authors get paid?

[jckatz]

I own the Sony Reader, and am about to purchase my first eBook.

The problem is, it is an author that I really like and always purchase her books in hard cover. I know contract is different and some authors (new never published) authors will take a flat fee and 100% of revenue will go to the publishing house. But with more experienced authors they tend to get better deals on hard cover books.

That being said, I've read that Apple iTunes pays a fee for the rights to the music from the publisher and that individual artist aren't getting a fair share for their sold 'tracks'.

Has anyone read anything or heard anything if purchased eBooks are being credited to the authors are just to the publishing house?

[NatCh]

I believe that, generally speaking, authors get more per unit for e-books than they do for p-books. In any case, they do get paid for e-books just as they would for paper ones, and if the book is in hardback, the e-price is going to be fairly comparable to that price, so your author will get paid as she normally would, I expect.

If you're really concerned, you could always send her some money directly -- the patron model pre-dates the publishing-house model, by many hundreds of years.

[jasonkchapman]

While record deals are often a lot like film deals, where "a percentage of the profits" can be subject to creative accounting, book contracts tend to be much more precise. They're usually stated as $x.xx per copy sold.

[jckatz]

Cool, thanks guys.