I’ve written a couple of books, but these have been fairly technical and with a very small market. I was paid up-front for them, without royalties, and any income from their sales goes to a small conservation organization.
I have recently been approached about doing a much more commericial book, a birding guide, which might actually make a significant amount of money. (It is certainly not going to be a best-seller, though. I have no expectations of getting rich on this, but may get some supplemental income out of it.) I’ve had some very preliminary discussions with the publisher, a small company in Costa Rica, on what the terms may be. Tomorrow I will be talking with them a bit more.
I’d like to get some feedback from authors or editors on what typical royalty rates for an author might be. From my intial discussions, the publishers are talking about a press run of about 25,000 books, with a retail price of probably $30-35. Any insight on what the range of rates might be from those experienced in these matters would be appreciated.
I just know fiction and my info may be out of date, but royalties were usually 6-8% of the cover price for standard paperbacks and 12-15% of the cover price for hardcovers. Trade paper is somewhere in between.
Your best bet, though, is to find a literary agent that handles this type of material and have them negotiate the contract. Look for someone with previous sales of this type, and if they don’t mention any, don’t use them. The 15% they take (and don’t sign with an agent that wants more) will be well worth it.
I concur. One thing to remember is that most contracts have a sliding scale for royalty percentages based on sales. Something like 10% on the first 7,500, 12.5% on 7.5-15,000, and 15% thereafter. Which is what my last nonfiction contract actually read. That’s after the advance is paid off, of course. That’s a good hunk of change on a $35 hardback with 25,000 sales. Hope it comes through for you.
Hmm. Rereading your post, that “small company in Costa Rica” pops out at me. I don’t know what that might mean in the world of birding. They may be as major as a Random House is for literary fiction. Often, however, small presses are hard pressed, pardon the pun, to give advances, and they may not offer as good royalty terms either. And distribution tends to be more hit and miss, which means that a print run may be twice that of actual sales. And don’t get me started on subsidiary rights.
Finding an agent who knows these things may make thousands of dollars of difference over the life of the book. Finding one with an offer in hand should make the process much easier. Do you know other authors who have produced similar books or worked with that company? Talk to them about their agents and experiences.
We’ve discussed an advance. The royalty rates mentioned by them so far have been much less than the ones you have quoted. There is also an illustrator who would get part of the royalties. But I have just had one very general discussion with them so far.
The company has produced several other nature guides, and is now in the final stages of putting out a guide to birds of Costa Rica. They want to follow it up with one for Panama, which is why they got in touch with me.
They apparently have a distribution deal with a major US university press on their other publications.
Clearly I’m going to have to do more homework before discussing more details with them. I’ll also look into getting an agent.