Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!caip!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!nobi
From: nobi@mtuxo.UUCP (m.juliar)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.research
Subject: Re: getting a book published
Message-ID: <1826@mtuxo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Jul-86 13:00:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtuxo.1826
Posted: Mon Jul 28 13:00:14 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Jul-86 07:52:03 EDT
References: <171@pecnos.UUCP> <2024@utai.UUCP> <8189@duke.duke.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 15
Keywords: 15 percent
Xref: mnetor net.books:2367 net.research:397

Fifteen per cent to the author as royalties?  That is outrageous from
almost any publisher's point of view.  Unless your name is Norman Mailer
or Danielle Steele (to cover a spectrum), you will get 10% royalties, or
in some cases, less.  The next question of course is 10% of what.  It
often is 10% of the normal selling price of the book by the bookstore--
that is, what you would pay for it at Waldenbooks, for example.  Some
publishers push for 10% of their selling price--that is, the wholesale
price--to the bookstore or the book distributor.

It all boils down to getting what you can get, as in any contract
negotiation.  An experienced contracts lawyer who knows publishing can
help, but then that is a lawyer.  There are author leagues and guilds
and cooperatives which give guidelines to new authors on negotiating with
publishers.  Look in the LMP, the Literary Market Place, available in any
library and published every year.