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From: peterson@milano.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.books,net.research
Subject: Re: getting a book published
Message-ID: <1934@milano.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Jul-86 10:59:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: milano.1934
Posted: Mon Jul 28 10:59:49 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 28-Jul-86 21:30:36 EDT
References: <171@pecnos.UUCP> <2024@utai.UUCP> <8189@duke.duke.UUCP>
Sender: peterson@milano.UUCP
Distribution: net
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Lines: 33
Keywords: 15 percent
Summary: royalty rates
Xref: mnetor net.books:2362 net.research:394

In article <8189@duke.duke.UUCP>, kpc@duke.UUCP (Kim P. Collins) writes:
> I saw that 15% royalties (85% publisher?) is about standard.  
> Does anyone else think that this is outrageous?  
> Are there any publishers that have a quality reputation and 
> give higher royalties?  Or does it really cost that much for 
> all publishers?

Rates can vary widely according to publisher, type of book, and market.
For college-level textbooks, my experiences have been that 15%-16% is
"normal", but I had offers as low as 12%. To get a higher royalty rate
required either doing more (like providing a computer tape all set up
for typesetting or even doing the typesetting yourself -- and I mean
typesetting not dot-matrix or laser printer output). The other
possibility that you might consider is a changing scale according to
sales.  For example, take 12% for the first 5,000 per year, then 16%
for the next 5,000; 18% for the next 5,000 and 20% for any more.  I
assume that publishers mainly make money for their "best-sellers" and
lose money on the non-sellers (one of my books sold 72 copies the
first year). So they have to pay for the losers with the income from
their winners.  A sliding royalty rate says that you won't cost them
as much if your book doesn't sell (you take the loss not them), but
in return you should profit if it does sell.

Also remember that the royalty rate is not for list price, but only
the publisher's income which is typically 75% - 80% of list.  So for
a 15% rate on a $20 book, the author gets 15% of $16 or $2.40 per
book.

Computer Science Press made its position in CS/EE college texts by
offering royalty rates of up to 24%.
-- 
James Peterson
peterson@mcc.arpa  or  ...sally!im4u!milano!peterson