Author Royalties for eBooks
By Jerry D. Simmons | March 9th, 2010 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)

Royalties for authors under contract with traditional publishers for their printed edition average between 5 and 7 percent, for independent authors that range is around 20 percent or less of net sales. Traditional publishers are offering their authors royalty rates for digital content in the neighborhood of 20 percent or less while on the independent side that number is anywhere from 20-30 percent of net sales depending on the retailer and terms.

If you own the digital, electronic or audio rights to your print book you can create all sorts of products and set retail prices accordingly. The eBook market is small but growing and the marketing opportunities are endless compared to print.

There is more excitement among New York publishers about eBooks since Apple announced the iPad and I expect to see some innovative and impressive products coming from them in the very near future. Having the ability to slice a typical 50 or 60,000 word manuscript into several smaller eBooks is a marketers dream. This will change publishing as we know it. Print will not die, but the ability to download digital content onto an eReading device is nothing more than the goose that laid the golden egg for independent authors.

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One Response to “Author Royalties for eBooks”

  1. Vicki says:
    March 10, 2010 at 9:29 am

    Well, 20 percent certainly trumps 5 – 7, but it still feels like writers are getting shorted. It seems that traditional publishing will loose the overhead but retain the (even greater) profits from ebooks. I think I’d fight to keep the digital rights and invest in that production, myself.

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