One of the constant
complaints I hear from fellow authors is how difficult it is to read royalty
statements from publishers. I concur.
I have been with one of my
publishers for eleven years, and I think I finally can decipher the royalty statement.
I think. And this will soon become academic since they are exiting the mystery
line so I won’t be publishing any further books with them.
Here are some of the
challenges. First, there are up to three different editions for each book
(hardcover, large print and e-book), and these are differentiated by a cryptic
code. Second, not all of the editions for one book are grouped together on the
royalty statement. Third, there is nothing on the statement that allows one to
verify royalties earned. You have to know the retail price of the edition and
then do the calculation. Fourth, there is a category called unspecified. After
much study, I determined this included prior returns.
Over the years, I have
caught a number of errors. The publisher did correct these. One time there was
an error in my favor, but I never would have found this since it represented an
erroneous sales figure, higher than actual. My concern: if this occurred,
what’s to say that underreported sales didn’t occur as well? Without invoking an
audit provision in the contract, I will never know.
I’m finding that some small
publishers are addressing this to make things easier for an author. This is a
simple as showing the number of units sold (or returned) by edition, the basis
for royalty calculation, percentage paid to author and amount paid to author.
The author can then quickly calculate if the royalty is correct.
