Quote:
Originally Posted by gbm
25% of "net" is not what I would call a better deal. "Net" is whatever the accounting dept says is "net".
Now if that was 25% of retail for ebooks then it would be better.
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"Net receipts" (which is what's on offer) is not the same as "net profits." Net receipts should mean, whatever they get from the seller, the author gets 25%. So if the book sells for $10, and Amazon takes $3.50, publisher receives $6.50 and author gets $1.625.
If Amazon's running a sale and the book is $5 this week, author gets a bit more than 80 cents. Possibly lower than the author would like, but an understandable split of intake. No weird Hollywood accounting; the percentage is just calculated from "what the publisher receives" not "what the publisher put on the pricetag."
Net
profits is the warning label. (Or "net," with no mention of what kind of net.) That's where the publisher gets $6.50 per book from Amazon, calculates the $1.625 for the author... and then subtracts the cost of the cover art, the cost of creating banner ads (whether or not they run the ads anywhere, much less any profits they bring in), the cost of the editor's time, the cost of accounting required to keep track of the sales... as soon as the author's share has grown big enough to cover all of those, the author starts earning royalties.