Contract levels
The Publisher of the imprint offers a contract based on the Reader Reports.
Key points;
On every contract level-
To get a feel for how titles usually sell, in the industry as a whole, see Estimate of likely sales.
CONTRACT LEVEL 1
Titles that look like they could sell in five figures. The author has a track record of that, in the last 3/5 years. Or, if a first time author, it’s an outstanding text, tailored to the right market. The name is recognizable to a bookshop buyer in that subject area, in both N America and the UK, and/or there are compelling endorsements from recognizable names. The buyer thinks “this is one we have to stock”.
"Net receipts", throughout, is the money we actually receive from retailers/readers/distributors, we do not deduct anything to cover our own costs.
E Books; 50% throughout, on net receipts (see Ebooks).
Printed books; 25% on net receipts on all printed copies
Subsidiary rights; 60% in author's favor. "non-book" rights like film etc are 80% in author's favor.
Price list A. For retail price list, see Price. Our average word count per printed page is 300.
Publication schedule; six months from finished files.
Includes;
· Blurb, author info and other book information edited.
· Distribution of title information to all databases, wholesalers and online accounts worldwide.
· AIs (advance information sheets) and presentation to all major retail accounts in N. America.
· AIs, presentation to all major accounts in UK.
· Trade copies offered to trade magazines; PW, Bookseller, etc., offered in programs such as Advance Access.
· Title information distributed to subscribed independent retailers (via mailing).
· Special Amazon promotion and co-op advertising with wholesalers such as Ingram, Bertrams, Gardners.
· Up to 50 hard copies where requested (additional amount may be added within reason).
· High profile presence in JHP mailing to retailers, media and foreign rights.
· Writing press release and distributing to all subscribed relevant subject/category contacts.
· A PR program tailored to the author and the book; building author profile on general and author sites; raising profile on online retail sites; push for articles, reviews, prizes. A further PR push whenever 500 copies are sold through the trade and online.
CONTRACT LEVEL 2
Likely sales in the thousands. Great text, right presentation. Author is more likely to be known nationally than internationally. Has or will get good endorsements from key figures. Author has a good “platform” and is active. The main push on sales is either in N America or UK rather than both.
E Books; 50% throughout, on net receipts (see Ebooks).
Printed books; 10% on net receipts on the first 10,000 printed copies, 15% from 10,000 up to 25,000 copies, 20% from 25,000 to 40,000 copies, 25% thereafter.
Subsidiary rights; 60% in author's favor. "non-book" rights like film etc are 80% in author's favor.
Publication schedule; three complete months from finished files. We ignore the current month, so files finished in January will be scheduled for publication in May.
Price list B (except for fiction, which is A). For retail price list, see the help icon against "Price". Our average word count per printed page is 300.
Includes;
· Blurb, author info and other book information edited.
· Distribution of title information to all databases, wholesalers and online accounts worldwide.
· AIs (advance information sheets) and presentation to all major retail accounts in N. America.
· AIs, presentation to all major accounts in UK.
· Trade copies offered to trade magazines; PW, Bookseller, etc., offered in programs such as Advance Access.
· Title information distributed to subscribed independent retailers (via mailing).
· Up to 30 hard copies (additional at author expense).
· Lower profile presence in JHP mailing to retailers, media and foreign rights.
-A PR program tailored to the author and the book, building author profile on general and author sites; raising profile on online retail sites; push for articles, reviews, prizes. A further PR push whenever 500 copies are sold through the trade and online.
CONTRACT LEVEL 3
Likely sales in the high hundreds/low thousands. Could be a great text, but the author isn’t particularly “known”. Could do a lot better on the sales if it spreads by word of mouth, if pushed through activities, networking – but a buyer is unlikely to stock many, or any, initially.
E Books; 50% throughout, on net receipts (see Ebooks).
Printed books; 10% on net receipts on the first 10,000 printed copies, 10% on net receipts 1,001 to 10,000 copies, 15% from 10,001 up to 25,000 copies, 20% from 25,001 to 40,000 copies, 25% thereafter.
Subsidiary rights; 60% in author's favor. "non-book" rights like film etc are 80% in author's favor.
Publication schedule; three months from finished files.We ignore the current month, so files finished in January will be scheduled for publication in May.
Price list B (except for fiction, which is A).
Author contribution; £500/$795 + £12/$19 per 1,000 words. If the final completed manuscript comes in at more than 20% above or below the original submission or estimated word count, we will send another invoice or supply a refund.
Includes:
· Blurb, author info and other book information edited.
· Distribution of title information to all databases, wholesalers and online accounts worldwide.
· AIs generated and presented to selective relevant accounts.
· Title information distributed to subscribed independent retailers (via mailing).
· Up to 10 promotional copies available to the publicity team (in addition to 12 free author copies in contract).
· Lower profile presence in JHP mailing to retailers, media and foreign rights.
-A PR program tailored to the author and the book; building author profile on general and author sites; raising profile on online retail sites; push for articles, reviews. A further PR push whenever 500 copies are sold through the trade and online.
CONTRACT LEVEL 4
Likely sales in the low hundreds or less. Good material, worthwhile publishing, could find its own niche, could do well, but it’s a long shot.
E Books; 50% throughout, on net receipts (see Ebooks).
Printed books; 10% on net receipts on the first 10,000 printed copies, 15% from 10,001 up to 25,000 copies, 20% from 25,001 to 40,000 copies, 25% thereafter.
Subsidiary rights; 60% in author's favor. "non-book" rights like film etc are 80% in author's favor.
Price list B (except for fiction, which is A).
Author contribution; £500/$795 + £22/$35 per 1,000 words. If the final completed manuscript comes in at more than 20% above or below the original submission or estimated word count, we will send another invoice or supply a refund.
Includes;
· Blurb, author info and other book information edited.
· Distribution of title information to all databases, wholesalers and online accounts worldwide.
- A PR program tailored to the author and the book; building author profile on general and author sites; raising profile on online retail sites; push for articles, reviews. a further PR push whenever 500 copies are sold through the trade and online.
· Up to 10 promotional copies available to the publicity team (in addition to 12 free author copies in contract).
With any of the contract levels, we offer extra marketing and publicity services for you to purchase. If you are interested, please read through the options in Where can I get more promotion?
We edit every book, but sometimes authors want more help - anything from providing an index to rewriting. If you want to consider any of these, go to What happens after signing the contract? and scroll down to Editorial Services.
For level 3 and 4 contracts, we send an invoice when you accept the contract. Standard terms are payment in 30 days.
WHY DO YOU HAVE DIFFERENT CONTRACT LEVELS?
Up till 2011 we worked with a standard, one-size-fits-all contract. Every author was on the same, we did not ask for any author contribution/subsidy (except on rare occasions for more academic titles, or poetry).
We have changed the way we work. The quality of the text is still key. But that does not necessarily translate into sales. So the levels relate to marketability. Much of that depends on whether you have published before and what kind of "platform" you have (publishing jargon for whether anyone is going to buy your book because they've heard of you). It does not necessarily have anything to do with how good the book itself is. We enjoy publishing good books even when, on our reckoning, they may not cover our costs. In an average 10 contracts offered, there will be one level 1, five level 2, three level 3, and one level 4.
The number of new titles being published in English increases by tens/hundreds of thousands a year. 2.5 million new ISBNs were issued in the USA alone in 2010. Digital publishing has made everything more competitive price-wise, and for first time fiction authors in particular a low retail price is necessary (we let you choose your own). And with Ebooks we give 50% royalty. So, on some books, a shared cost-element is necessary for us, if we're to publish.
In return, wherever we can, we push royalty levels as high as possible, and, with ebooks for instance, there is no distinction between the levels (there no associated costs with sending copies into shops, getting them back, sending them out again, etc), royalties are on 50% from the first copy sold onwards. You will earn approximately six times more from the sale of an ebook that a print book - average income;
Print book – retail £10, invoiced value £5, author royalty £0.50
Ebook – retail £7, invoiced value £6, author royalty £3
So it does not mean that low-level titles can never break out - we edit and promote every book. Several titles that have done best for us, selling in tens of thousands, or even millions, would have been categorized as level 4, initially. That is true in publishing generally - the titles that turn into bestsellers are often too unusual, different, to be recognized for what they are, turned down by dozens of publishers, overturning everything that is said in all these help icons.....
But they are rare. If we promoted each book with the optimism we feel for it, we would go broke in short order. Hence this rough breakdown. It is not science, but it is being honest about expectations.
You can publish cheaply yourself, through a company like Lulu, and sell through a single source, Amazon. More on this further down the page. For us, the structures to report/edit/design/print, and market and sell the book worldwide, are expensive to set up, maintain and develop. We don't pay ourselves a lot, working on about £15/$25 an hour, and some years we lose a bit, some years we make a bit of profit. If we do not sell more than 1,000 copies of the print edition, with minimal returns (more further down the page in How much profit are you going to make out of me?) we lose money. Most titles published, whoever the publisher is, do not make that level (see Estimate of likely sales).
Which is why it is hard to find a publisher. We publish more than most, relative to size, because our own overheads are low, we rely on networks and systems rather than a central office, and we share costs/risk on some of the books.
If we offer you a contract with an author subsidy, and you can not afford it, we're sorry about that, please don't take it, or stretch yourself financially. If you object to it on principle, well, we just have to differ. Either way, keep looking, or publish yourself. For some authors it's small change. For some authors, particularly in the academic world, it's common practice.
Fiction;
Fiction is particularly difficult. Without a prior record of success it is near-impossible to get placement in the stores, particularly in the US. It does not have quite the same opportunities for targeted marketing. The book/authors profile needs to be outstanding. We bring fiction out, whatever the level, at the lower retail price bracket. And, increasingly, most fiction is sold through ebooks, particularly in genres like crime, horror, romance, SF etc. In ebooks, the key factor is price. If an author sets a $4 price, and gets 50% royalty, it does not leave us much (particularly after the discounts we still have to give the sellers, VAT in the UK etc)..
DO YOU EVER CHANGE CONTRACT LEVEL OFFERS THE MANUSCRIPT IS IMPROVED AND RESUBMITTED?
No. Readers reports often say something along the lines of "this would be a better manuscript if xyz were done", but we do not look at the proposal again. For one thing, we pay for the readers reports, and do not want to do it a second time around. For another, part of the decision is based on your "recognition" factor. It may be a better book, and have more long term potential for sales, but that does not make it any easier to get it into the trade to begin with.
ARE YOU A VANITY PUBLISHER?
Some accuse us of that, invariably knowing nothing about the business, because we ask for a subsidy on some titles. We decline most submissions. On the remainder, we ask for a more detailed proposal. Some will declined at that stage. Others go out for readers reports. A few more are declined then. The rest are offered contracts. As explained above, on average in any 10 contracts we offer one level at 1, five at level 2, three at level 3, and one at level 4. A higher proportion of levels 3 and 4 are turned down, so the number of titles we publish with a subsidy is less than that. In 2012 it was one title out of four. That proportion is likely to rise as we publish more, and ebook sales become more significant (because we offer a 50% royalty, and authors can choose their retail price, an element of subsidy becomes necessary for us on some titles if we're going to be able to publish them - or you could think of it as a "profit share".
Author subsidies and selling books to authors amounts to about 5% of our income, 95%+ is from selling books to retail (physical stores and online). 15% of our total revenues go back to authors in royalty. Vanity publishers get all their income from the author, whether in direct subsidy or selling books to them.
Vanity publishers do not discriminate, they publish anything. Our selection criteria are more exact than many traditional publishers, obtaining several readers reports from serious editors/publishers rather than relying on the opinion of one publisher or editor. We only publish titles that we believe are good, that could/should sell, and look at each one on its own merits.
Within the imprints, it varies. Some only offer contracts with no author subsidy involved. The publisher may be happier bringing out a few titles a year than a few titles a month. We don't actually bring out titles under "John Hunt Publishing", so to accuse "John Hunt Publishing" of being a vanity publisher is a bit like accusing Random/Penguin of being a vanity publisher because they own AuthorHouse, or Hay House because they own Balbao Press. In principle, we are happy to offer a middle way, an alternative to either "publisher pays for everything/does it all" or "author pays for everything/does it all", where the cost on some titles can be shared, if agreeable to both parties.
In any case, subsidy is implicit in much of publishing. Most academic publishing is subsidized by high prices, mostly paid by libraries/academic institutions, so subsidized, effectively, by the taxpayer. Sales on most new titles do not recover advances paid for them, so they are effectively being subsidized by the better selling books (if you publish with us, and the book does well, we will keep spending on it). Most published poetry is subsidized, either directly or through the publisher being supported by the Arts Council or similar bodies.
If you look at publishing overall, only a small proportion of it is “unsubsidized”, if by that you mean that everyone, including the author, gets a reasonable wage covering time spent bringing the book to fruition.
We're prepared to keep changing/adapting to what authors think is reasonable, as the market evolves.
For just getting your book out, making it available, there are cheaper alternatives to working with us, if we have offered a contract at level 3 or 4. You can do it all yourself. Have a look, for instance, at; http://searchwarp.com/swa578084-Review-The-Fine-Print-Of-Self-Publishing.htm
check out http://ereads.com/2011/01/do-authors-make-good-publishers.html, or http://blogcritics.org/books/article/self-publishing-70-of-nothing-is/, www.sfwa.org, www.vanitypublishing.info.
Definitions and costs
Self-publishing, strictly speaking, is where you buy and own the ISBN, and do all the editorial/printing/marketing work yourself, or pay people separately to do it. It is not easy. Most independent authors work through one of the major subsidy houses. There are three big ones, each bringing out thousands of titles every month, so they have the most competitive prices- Lulu, CreateSpace (owned by Amazon) and Author Solutions (including Author House, Libris, iUniverse, Trafford and others; owned by Random Penguin). The costs (for an average uncomplicated 60,000 word manuscript) tend to average out at around-
Review; $200
Copy editing; $1000
Text design; $400
Cover; $800
Favorable endorsement/review; $400
Promotional text; $200
PR consultation; $400
One month PR campaign; $5000+
$10,000 is often the minimum you are likely to spend, for the book to be "available" (not actively sold) in one country. All the major trade publishers now have their own self-publishing branches, like Harlequin Horizons and West Bow Press, with packages beginning at anything from $500 for the most basic to $10,000, with $12,000 being common for a publicist and specialty packages going to $20,000 and above. With those owned by the major publishers, there will be a promise that the reputable parent company will monitor the sales and publish the book properly if it does well, but that’s almost unknown to happen. In all these cases you may be offered royalty rates of 50-60% and more, but then there is no one buying the book. Bookshops will not stock books by these companies, because there is no editorial control, they will publish anything.
So we are not the cheapest route possible, but we are well down the price scale, a small fraction of these prices. We can not do what we do for less. Or more quickly. It’s the time the job takes, and getting it to the market, circulating the information. Whoever you work with, do not expect royalties to recover the cost.
HOW QUICKLY WILL YOU OFFER ME A CONTRACT?
We usually make a decision within a few working days.
Most publishers will quote a time frame of around three to six months or more to reply to your proposal, and then it can take anywhere from another three to twelve months or so to finalize the contract. We often reply within a day or two. A week is nearer the average. This quick response doesn’t mean there’s a hidden catch, that we are trying to rush you into an ill-considered decision, or making a pre-emptive grab for a book that could be wildly successful. It’s just the way we prefer to work. We all expect that kind of response when dealing with plumbers, or doctors, and don’t see why publishers should behave differently. Our readers usually respond within a few working days.
HOW FAR WILL YOU NEGOTIATE ON THE CONTRACT?
We do not negotiate. The clauses in the basic contract are fairly standard to all major publishers. Dozens of authors have subsequently signed with us after being advised on the terms by others, including their own lawyers and staff from the Society of Authors. Many authors have subsequently signed with us after being advised on the terms by staff from the Society of Authors, and by their own lawyers. There’s a lot of inevitable legalese bumf, some of it to protect you, some of it to protect us. It could really be summed up in one paragraph, but apparently this stuff has to be in there. Read the relevant pages of The Insider’s Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Rachel Stock if you have any concerns. We have never got to the point where we are in disagreement with authors over what’s due to them and need to revisit the contract. We have never been bankrupt (in any form or other), or been to court, or failed to pay our bills or our royalties.
There are two kinds of negotiation; over major points, and minor.
Major points
A good proportion of the most capable, highly paid people in publishing, both editors and agents, spend most of their key time arguing over contracts. Its not the way we work. Co-operation between authors, sharing information through the database, is a key principle of our business, and that’s undermined if everyone has different agreements. If you want to argue on the advance or royalty, best to go to another publisher.
Minor points
These are often a question of phrasing. We do not change the wording of the contract. Everyone prefers something slightly different. We could spend an hour or two revising every contract to get the language exactly as you want, but its simply not worth the time, as it will have no impact on your sales, or your income, or your rights.
If you want 16 free copies rather than 12, because you can really use them to promote the book, that is fine, we will send them. Emailsarah@jhpbooks.net. It is not a "legal" kind of issue.
If something in the contract does not look reasonable to you, we will happily change to something better if it is a change we can apply to all contracts, which other authors are going to be equally happy with.
Lawyers
Whatever you do, please don’t send the contract to a lawyer/attorney. It will come back with pages of suggested alterations (which they have to make to justify their fee) and we have too much to do to read them, let alone respond in detail.
Agents
If you are working through an agent, that is fine, we work with a couple of dozen. Would just ask that you still follow our system through the different editorial, production, sales and marketing processes. We are happy to send your agent a password so that they can use the website as well. But we can not get your book through it if you are relying on an agent to communicate on your behalf on every single query by the traditional email route. We need you to be able to use the system here, download and upload manuscripts/proofs, see when review copies have gone etc. rather than asking an agent to ask us (and the agent won’t do it him/herself).
As far as royalty payments go, if your title has come to us through an agent, they will be listed on the contracts page, and payment will be made to them, and they will make a corresponding payment to you, minus their agreed %.
HOW DO I SIGN THE CONTRACT?
Read the terms and conditions, tick that box and then "Accept". If you have any questions, please post them on the Authors Forums. If you "Decline" the contract, there is an opportunity to leave us comments. We read all feedback left, but please do not expect a direct response.
Print off a copy for your records.
It is legal. It saves posting them around. Saves time.
WHY DOES THE CONTRACT HAVE TO BE FOR THE LENGTH OF COPYRIGHT?
There are two main reasons;
WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU GET AND I KEEP?
The copyright of the work remains with you. Unlike many even of the major publishers we do not buy copyrights. What are you agreeing to here is to give us the exclusive right to publish the book for the period of copyright, while the book remains in print, in return for a royalty on sales, along with various subsidiary rights where the income is split 60% or 80% in your favor, depending on the areas. More on ebooks in the section below.
The contract is with John Hunt Publishing Ltd. We trade under different imprints, and that’s how we refer to books on the list, but they are not legal entities.
WHAT TERRITORIAL RIGHTS DO YOU WANT?
We do not publish books for just one English language market territory but not another. These are archaic distinctions, particularly when it comes to the Commonwealth. Electronic publishing and online sales make their disappearance inevitable. Ebooks are moving up from a few % of sales in 2009, 20%+ in 2012, heading for 50% in 2104/5, and do not acknowledge national boundaries. Our systems are geared up for international distribution and sales, so we do not buy in books from other English language publishers or sell them to other English language publishers (with the exception of occasional markets like India, more in Foreign Rights sales).
Our "default" position is for worldwide publishing rights, in all languages, but if you want to confine it to English language worldwide, just make a comment to that effect in the comments you can send back with the contract and the publisher will adjust the contract, or tick the relevant box yourself (as of November 2011 it's not working yet on all browsers- one of the few hundred improvements we are working on). If you have good relationships with overseas language publishers and want to keep some translation rights, that can be done, but make it clear in the contract reply so that we can enter those countries as unavailable to us.
There is not an option to give us English language rights but change your mind later to give us world rights if you have tried selling some yourself but it has not worked out.
We do not take on titles for print-only rights. It is so rarely that authors ask to retain ebook rights, that invariably, if we agree, someone forgets to check that we have them. It makes the distribution of information more complicated, like still getting the print and ebook edition onto the same Amazon page. We get into complications over who can use what proofs/covers, and who updates which when. Any overseas publisher interested in language rights is likely to want ebook rights as well as print, and we can not get into separate three-way correspondence on this. If you have already published an ebook edition, it doesn't rule a contract out, but we need to ask you to remove your ebook version from circulation when our publication date is set, and we will bring one out separately, alongside the print, with its own ISBN.
DO YOU MAKE THE BOOK AVAILABLE IN OTHER LANGUAGES?
We sell rights to foreign language publishers, more in Foreign rights sales.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I AM LATE WITH THE MANUSCRIPT?
It will result in a direct delay to the publishing timing for your title. If it has been a while (on the order of months) and we haven't heard from you, we will likely follow-up just to make sure things are still on-track. We do not schedule the publishing dates until we have all finished files.
HOW CLOSELY DO I NEED TO STICK TO MY PROPOSED WORD LENGTH?
So long as it’s not a radically different book to the one suggested in the Proposal – half or twice the length – it doesn’t matter, as we haven’t scheduled it or priced it yet.
WILL MY MANUSCRIPT BE ACCEPTED WHEN I SEND IT?
If we’ve already seen it in draft form, or a substantial part of it, yes.
Occasionally we have a manuscript where no amount of rewriting can make it work. It usually happens with first time authors where the contract has been made on the basis of a synopsis. It’s rare, but it happens. It’s possible for us both to get it wrong, be carried away with a good idea, and the manuscript isn’t publishable in the sense that it would be a credit to author and publisher.
A variation on this is where the manuscript needs more work than we can put into it. The basic ideas are commercial, but standard copy-editing (grammar, punctuation, rewriting some sentences) isn’t enough. Maybe the author has had help (paid or unpaid) on the synopsis and first chapter but not the rest. Or is dyslexic. Or ran out of steam. Sometimes the basic text is OK but it needs restructuring, or a rewrite, and the author can’t do it. Sometimes it’s a question of time, sometimes the author just doesn’t find writing easy. It’s just not their best form of communication. This is no reflection on what is said. Not everyone can write as well as they can speak or think, gifts are allocated by the gods sparingly.
The best option in this case is to send it out to one of a few freelance editors we work with, who know the market for that subject. Costs are listed above. All manuscripts, when received, are sent for copy editing. You will see the final copy-edited version, for checking/approval. That is the last opportunity to make changes to the text. Changing proofs is costly and time-consuming, and we charge for that, more in Proofs.
WILL YOU DEFINITELY PUBLISH MY BOOK?
We have never failed to publish a book that we have contracted for if the manuscript is OK.
CAN I PUBLISH SOMETHING SIMILAR WITH ANOTHER PUBLISHER?
If it is the same kind of material, no. If its a sequel, or similar, of course. We’re not trying to be too restrictive here. But if a reader picks up a similar title and can genuinely think “I’ve read this before”, that’s bad news. They ask for a refund from the place they bought it. It gets complicated. If we sell your book to a different language publisher, and you later bring out a similar title with another publisher, and they sell it to another overseas publisher, and in the process of translation the two books look similar, things can start to get legal.
Similarly, if you want to print copies of the title we’re contracting for here for yourself, because it’s cheaper than buying them from us at 50% and you can sell them at your own events for a higher profit, you can’t do it. In part, because you have the copyright of the text, but not the typesetting, or cover. But largely because it gets too complicated. If there are quality problems the reader may seek recompense from us rather than you. If you use a different ISBN it is worse, the shops and readers get confused about which book they’re buying, and where they should send returns. Any book on the market with more than one ISBN from different publishers/sources (apart from different ISBNs for different formats) is more trouble than it’s worth, and will get deleted from retail and distributors’ databases.
WHAT ARE WARRANTIES AND INDEMNITIES?
Basically, you’re saying here that it hasn’t been published before, that it’s your material, you’re not copying someone else’s, and that you’re not libelling anyone, or invading their privacy. Whether any of these things are the case or not, you are in a better position to know than we are, so it is your responsibility.
If parts of the book have been published before in magazines, that’s not a problem; on the contrary, it’s an encouraging sign. You only need to get permission to reuse your own material in book form if you have signed away the copyright on such material, or have a written arrangement restricting such usage for a period. If it’s been available in full before as an ebook, or on your website, or as a self-published book, but you’ve told us about it, that’s also fine.
On liabilities; we don’t in general publish the kind of celebrity biographical (libel) or extreme sports (safety) or medical (health) books where these kind of issues come up. It costs around £2,000/$4,000 to have a book properly read for libel, or similar, and we don’t do it. If your book has the potential for libel difficulties, we’re not the right publisher, try the big guys who have legal departments. If you are worried about anything that might cause problems, take it out. Or change names so that the characters are not recognizable. Authors and agents sometimes ask that the author be added as an additional named insured to the publishers media-perils insurance policy, but few now do that, and it does not provide much comfort anyway; the author is still responsible for a deductible retention that is usually in six figures. If you are really concerned about insurance, there are policies available at places like www.publiability.com for around $2,500 per year. There’s more on libel (and plagiarism) in Copyright questions.
CAN I NEGOTIATE AN ADVANCE?
Sorry, we don’t pay advances (that’s common in academic and specialist publishing, unusual in larger trade houses and mass market publishing – though things are changing).
There are several reasons;
If an advance is important to you, there are plenty of other publishers who pay them.
CAN I NEGOTIATE ON ROYALTIES?
Our royalties are as per the rates given in the Contract Levels, above. The average royalty on all books sold by traditional - rather than vanity – publishers in the US/UK is 10.7% of receipts. If you’re not already a successful author, 10% is a good start, and you’re more likely to be offered nearer 7.5% by most publishers.
Our royalty rate on ebooks is a flat 50%, across the board. There are some new specialist “ebooks only” publishers who offer that, but the average for traditional publishers is closer to 20%, with the “Big Six” generally starting at 15% and (some of them, not all) going up to 40% on a sliding scale.
We don’t negotiate on royalties, because they’re already very reasonable, and tweaking them one way or another for individual authors isn’t worth the cost to the system and the mistakes it’s likely to generate.
Its not difficult to compare our royalty rates with others, just type in "average book royalties" into Google. There is a list for instance at http://www.brendahiatt.com/id2.html.
WHEN DO YOU PAY ROYALTIES?
Twice a year, covering the periods May to October and November to May, payable 60 days later. That’s standard for all publishers, except for the vanity/subsidy publishers, who don’t have to account for the distribution pipeline that books go through.There’s an explanation of the royalties in Royalties. The main item which might cause an unpleasant surprise is the level of returns on print books, and the reserves held against them (we do not hold back reserves on ebooks).
Note; December 2011
We are abandoning the "reserves held against returns" from the royalty period November 2011-April 2012 onwards. So if your title has not been published by November 2011, it will not be subject to a reserve against returns. It just seems one of those time-honored publishing practices which all serious publishers still follow, but we do not want to do it any more.
WHAT DOES PAYMENT OF ROYALTIES ON RECEIPTS MEAN?
Payments on receipts means paying on the actual invoiced value to the buyer that we receive for selling the books. So for instance if the book is Priced at $10, and a shop buys it at $6, you receive a royalty on the $6. We do not deduct other costs that we pay from within the $6, like being charged for making the sale, for warehouse, freight, or anything else. We can not tell you exactly what the royalty amount will be on each book sold, because it varies according to currency, account, discount that the buyer takes.
Some agents insist on payment on retail price. For instance, 6% or 7.5% on retail rather than 10% or 15% on receipts. But we never agree to it. Even if it amounts to the same, which it generally does. Too complicated for us to do one thing on some books and different on others. The retail price is increasingly a notional figure. Since the net book agreement was abolished a few years ago in the UK there is no generally guaranteed price at which books are sold to the trade, or at which the trade must sell them. Opinion is equally divided between booksellers and publishers as to whether prices should be on covers at all. The situation is extra complicated for us in that we’re selling in different currencies (a benefit to you which most publishers don’t have to factor in when arranging contracts). In some market areas, we don’t know what price the book is being sold at, we just get the quantity and the value.
If you insist on a royalty on retail price, let us close the conversation. Some agents ask for a royalty on retail price when the discount is below 55%, on receipts when it’s over 55%, and with variations on that. Too complicated for us, and it can easily lead to trying fix sales at a discount level which avoids triggering a higher payment, which is silly.
One thing to make clear, none of our sales in any country are discounted first. We are not “selling” books to the distributor, who in turn sells them to the shop. We own all the stock in those warehouses, and we sell through to shops and wholesalers in the same way as every local publisher does. So in all the markets your % of sales on receipts is the same as any other publisher in that territory would give you.
WHAT IS THE ROYALTY SPLIT?
That is there in the event of there being two or more authors, so we know that more than one person needs paying. If you are the only author, it is 100%. If you are represented by an agent, the agent's details should be there, and the money will come to you through them.
We can adjust the split of royalty between authors if required.
Anthologies
We can not split royalties across multiple authors in an anthology- the sums involved are too small and the number of bank accounts, agreements and paperwork etc. too large. You need a letter of agreement from the contributors giving you the right to act on their behalf as regards the one-volume edition. A couple of sentences should suffice, we do not need copies. There is no restraint on the contributors publishing their individual contributions elsewhere in non-book form.
WHATS THE SPLIT ON SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS?
For most areas, it is 60% in your favor.
We have these various sub-rights clauses in the contract because it’s standard publishing practice, though in general it mostly only applies to bestselling fiction/memoir/celebrity biography etc. We do sell a lot of translation rights, but if we get extracts in national magazines (rare, but it happens) we’re grateful for the publicity and don’t get paid for it.
We have taken out the usual subsidiary rights that most publishers include, including the potentially big stuff like film rights;
If your book gets made into a big motion picture, tv series, or some other form of performance and media, we have terms at 80% in your favor.
DO YOU PUBLISH EBOOKS, AUDIO BOOKS?
Virtually all new titles come out as ebooks, we dont publish audio books. There’s more on different formats, particularly ebooks, more in Book format.
WHAT IS VAT?
VAT only applies to a few UK authors. If you are a US citizen (or from any other country) you do not need a VAT number, we do not deduct any taxes from your royalties in the UK, and there is no paperwork needed from you. You do not need a double-taxation exemption form from us. You just declare your royalties as income to your usual Revenue Office when you come to do your taxes.
WHAT PRICE CAN I BUY COPIES AT?
50% discount off the retail price, and this applies to any book you want to order from the list, from any imprint. 55% if it’s 500 copies, 60% if it’s 1,000, 65% on 2,500 and upwards.
Most publishers sell books to authors at around 30% off the retail price. There’s more in Sales.
You do not pay for the first twelve books, that are sent free, as per the contract. If there are two authors, it’s six each. If there are many contributors, it’s a free copy to those who ask for them, or who you wish to have one sent to; just make a note in “Author’s Notes”, with their address. Contributors can also purchase books (across the list) at 50% discount.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE BOOK GOES OUT OF PRINT?
We don’t put books out of print.
It used to be traditional in publishing that rights reverted to the author once a book had been out of print for something like six months. With technology today a publisher can keep a book in print by bringing out one copy at a time, POD (print on demand) rather than needing to print 10,000 or 1,000, so you could be locked in with that publisher forever (though not all want to keep slow sellers, they still take up space, generate queries etc). The author may be happy with the situation, or may be unhappy and would sooner take the rights back, or interest a more aggressive publisher, or self-publish. If after three years, your title sells less than 100 copies during a British Financial Year (March to April), we do have offer a contract cancellation option (see How Can I Cancel a Contract? below).
We do not (see Printings) print books in single copies, we are likely to begin using POD (print on demand) more as time goes on. It's likely the future of the industry and offers plenty of benefits for publishers and authors. As an example, if something urgent needed correcting in a book there would no longer be hundreds of copies that need to be sold before the updated copy is in the market.
WHAT ARE THE "PUBLISHER RIGHTS"?
On the contract page, underneath "imprint", there may be (not always) a reference to "publisher rights 30%". It is an internal note for Admin. The publisher of an imprint has some responsibility for making contacts, commissioning books, developing the marketing for the imprint. As a commission payment they receive a percentage of what the title generates in royalties from sales. It is not deducted from the royalties the author receives, but is in addition to it.
At the bottom of the contract page there is reference to a "royalty split". this is only applicable where there is more than one author.
DO I HAVE TO GIVE YOU FIRST OPTION ON MY NEXT BOOK?
No.
Most publishers have a “first refusal” clause which gives them first option on your next book. The reason is that publishers see investment in an author (particularly a first-time one) as a long term process, and think they might recoup it on the second or fourth book even if they don’t on the first. Most authors though don’t want to commit themselves to a publisher long -term, particularly if they’re not getting a substantial advance to tie them in (for one thing, it’s unlikely that your editor for the first book will still be there for the fourth). So we don’t have this clause. This is just mentioned here because its absence is often remarked on. Obviously, if we can sell your book, we would like to publish another one, and as you can see from the website and cross checking it against Amazon we tend to keep the authors we have. But you have no obligation to consider us for it.
HOW MUCH PROFIT ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE OUT OF ME?
On most new titles, not much, if any.
Printed books
Authors are naturally inclined to think "look how much money the publisher is making, if the book costs $1 to print why can they not sell it - to me at least- for $2". Or; "its selling for $10, I am only making $0.50, even after print cost and retail discount, they must be making $3.50 profit".
Here is a typical scenario on the standard contract we have been using since we started, on a 10% royalty, which explains why we have amended them with different options in 2011.
A note first about the print cost; larger publishers are often on a mark-up of 20 from print cost to retail, even though the design/cover etc. costs are amortized over much larger quantities. 10 is usually regarded as a safe minimum. They can do that because they are only publishing titles they are fairly sure of selling large quantities. We are on around 6 or 7, and give better author discounts than the vast majority of traditional publishers, whose average is 30% compared to our 50%+ (as opposed to self/vanity publishers who might give 80%+ but have no distribution or marketing costs because they do not attempt to sell any copies).
Let us say the book is going to sell 1000 copies (many don’t), and because we pay relatively low levels on readers, editing, design, proofing etc (people make it up in the form or high-volume, regular work) the direct costs in all this (no actual printing) are $1500. And then the book still has to be stored, presented, despatched, invoiced, etc, for which we are invoiced in turn, so we have 15% for distribution, 10% for sales, which gives;
$10.00; less $5.00 discount, $0.50 royalty, $1.50 design/edit/prod (spread over 1000 copies), $1.30 print, $0.75 distribution cost, $0.50 sales cost, =$0.45 gross profit
OK, $0.45, it doesn’t sound bad for the publisher, it’s about what the author is getting. But that’s the surface figures. Then, you’ve got returns, that averages 40% in the industry. (There was one period last year when our returns from B & N were 90%). So for every 10 books that go out, four get returned and pulped. They get pulped because it costs to much to sort out the returns, chuck the scuffed ones, repack them into the warehouse etc., and then maybe they don’t sell anyway, it’s cheaper to reprint when needed (more on returns in the Royalties section). So the unit sales and royalties are reduced on 40% of the books, but you still have the origination and print and distribution/sales cost etc on 100% of them.
So now it looks like (on a sale of 10 books)
Retail $10x10 = $100
(discount)Less $5x10 = $50
Returns credit $5x4 =$20 (the books that have been returned)
Royalty $0.50x6 = $3 (on the books that have been sold)
Design/edit$1.50x10 =$15
Print $1.30x10 =$13
Distribution $0.75x10 =$7.5
Cost of taking back and pulping (the returned books)
$0.25x4 =$1
Sales $0.5x10 =$5
= -$14.50 gross profit
Then, we’re always left with more stock than we actually sell. About one third across the list (but on new titles it's usually more like twice the number sold). Because we try to keep all titles in stock all the time, rather than dropping them. Which has to be written off (and at some point, some of it pulped, because we get charged extra each year for the number of units in the warehouse above a certain level, not included in the above).
Which knocks it down in this case by 3 copies;
-$14.50 gross profit
Less $1.30x3
= -$18.40
So we end up losing $18.40 on a sale of 10 books, nearly $2 per book. That’s if it sells 1000 copies overall. And that’s gross, before all other costs like overheads, not net.
There are lots of swings and roundabouts here of course. No returns from Amazon, but then their discount is 60% rather than 50%. We’re not paying a sales team any more, but the cost of the people we use specifically on sales is about the same amount. We’re being more careful about putting books into shops, so are bringing the return rate down, but then we’re not counting review copies etc in here. Some books we have a higher mark-up on, some less (depending on whether we’re using the A or B price list).
But then there’s a whole raft of other costs, eg; bad debts (when Borders went into Chapter 11 in Spring 2011 for instance they owed publishers $240 million, and they’ll be lucky to get one fifth of that back), bank charges, marketing costs, and that’s all before you get to overheads – salaries, rent, accounts, post, and so on. Circulating information is a major cost. In theory, internet and digital and so on seem free; in practice, it does not matter how many or few the title sells, every major retailer and distributor wants the information presented to them in their own different formats if they are going to show it as available. There are ways of systematizing the information rather than have people typing in every tiny detail dozens of times over, but that costs money too.
Then there’s the cash and return on investment problem – the money on all this is paid up front, and it takes 90/120 days to get paid, if the payments do actually come.
Then there’s the bigger question of investing more generally in the business. We spend a six-figure sum each year on computer/database/website systems, particuilarly on improving the marketing.
What finances the business of course, is the relatively few titles that sell year in, year out, have long covered their origination costs, and have lower returns.
One option, if we were to be capitalist about it, is just to keep those strong authors, drop the rest, and not publish anything new that we weren’t pretty sure was going to sell a few thousand copies. No correspondence about anything else, just a standard negative email back. And then maybe we’ld even get into paying advances. Agents would like us better.
Or, we stick with our guns, and say we’re going to create a different model (it’s work in progress at the moment). One which gives us more freedom to publish if we like the book. we don't quite the same costs on ebooks, which is why we start at 50%.
On a lighter note; http://i.imgur.com/gdvaL.jpg
HOW CAN I END THE CONTRACT?
If you have any further queries on the contract please put them up on the forum.