I hope while I was gone you all had a productive week. Did you have any questions about that contracts I posted? Hmm. Probably.  Well I’m going to go over a few points that I think are important.  Just remember this: Talking with my agents and lawyer does not make me a lawyer.  I’m a writer/nurse. While the things I say may be based on the facts as I know them to be, you should always have a lawyer look them over for you. (That disclaimer sure made me sound like a lawyer didn’t it? LOL)

First off you really need an intellectual property attorney.

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

Intellectual property is divided into two categories: Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.

The first thing that any writer is interested in is the money be it advance or royalty.  The simple definition of advance is money given to you by the publisher before your book has even had a chance to hit the shelves.  Some authors may receive part of the advance on signing the contract. The advance is usually divided into two or three payments. Sometimes the last part of an advance is paid when final edits are approved and accepted. Sometimes the final payment may not be given until a designated time period after the book hit the shelves.

I was told it cost about $19,000 to put out the average print book. Let us assume that figure is true. Then let us assume it’s your first book and you received $5000 for an advance. The average price of mass market books are about $6.99, for Trade size (the little larger size books) the price is about $10.99. 

Here’s the fun part:  Your royalty is between 6-8 percent. Royalty is paid after the $5000 you were given has been earned back.  And no, that doesn’t mean that you have to pay it back personally if the book doesn’t make a profit.  It does mean that if it doesn’t make a profit you won’t see royalties and you may not get another book contract.

$6.99 (price of book) X  (print run-number of your book that was printed)  15,000 books = $104,850 X —-  your percentage 6 = $6291- your advance = $1,291  Right?  Wrong.  A certain percentage is held in anticipation of books being returned to the publisher.  About 25% = 322.75

IF everything went according to my little above scenario you would still be pretty happy.  You got $5000 up front money and now you’re going to get a check for $968.25.  There are two things that would immediately throw this off. IF the print run was 10,000 instead of 15,000 you would not have earned out your advance. You would have earned $4,194.    25% would still be held for return. And then you have the other big IF.  IF your percentage was based on retail or wholesale. I of course based it on retail.

I’m aware that you’re bored with what I’ve presented.  It even seems a little daunting and you might be thinking, forget it I’m going to self publish.  There is no right or wrong way to get your work out there but to self publish your work is not a cheap venture.

I’m breaking apart this contract not to discourage you from sending your work to a publisher.  In fact I want to encourage you to do just that.  I just want to arm you with knowledge.  Knowledge is power. It doesn’t matter whether this article is boring to you or not. It matters that you have some understanding of an advance, the way royalties work and the need for an intellectual property attorney who understands all of the jargon to look it over and explain the contract with you before you sign. Remember I said I was going to go over a couple of points. I changed my mind. Your eyes are glossing over and I know when to quit.  See you soon.

Dyanne