10 percent Royalty ?? Are publishers "cheating" the authors

Of late there have been quite a lot of discussions regarding royalty in Literary World. Few of those are given below 

• Charu http://www.charuonline.com/newarticls/velithirai.html
• Jeyamohan http://www.jeyamohan.in/?p=5683
• Gnani http://idlyvadai.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_4548.html
• Writer Para http://www.writerpara.com/paper/?p=930
• Badri http://thoughtsintamil.blogspot.com/2009/12/etc-1.html and http://thoughtsintamil.blogspot.com/2009/12/etc-2.html

As someone who has been in this field for over a decade, I would like to share my views

A Book, from the time of conception in the authors mind to the readers hand, goes through an intricate, complicated process. 

To understand this, let us assume that I am writing a book on the uses of microscope. Let us also assume that this book is of 250 pages (A5 size) and a publisher publishes 1000 copies of this book with a MRP of Rs 1000

So 1000 x Rs 100 = Rs 1,00,000

Now comes the tricky issue

Who are all getting a share of this 1,00,000 Rupees

• Author gets Rs 10,000
• To print 1000 copies of 100 page A5 size book will cost approximately Rs 30,000 (Typesetting, Proofreading, Covers,  Binding)
• For Typesetting you need a Computer, Printer, Papers, Ink, Software (Have you ever cared to enquire the cost of Adobe Page Maker and Corel Draw) 
• Printing Ink
• Papers
• Cost of Printing Color Pages / Covers
• Laminating the Cover
• Rs 10,000 To pack this and send this to various places
• Packing includes covers , cloths, transit charges
• Most Publishers sell the books at 30% discount (Some sell at 40 % discount) to the distributor 
• So A Publisher spends Rs 50000 on these books and sells this for Rs 70000 to the distributor
• These 1000 Books are then for Rs 80000 to the retailer by the distributor at 20 % discount
• Distributor has warehouse expenses, labour, transit charges to bear
• The Retailer sells this at a discount of 10 % for Rs 90000
• Retailer has shop rent, electricity, wages to bear
• The end consumer gets Rs 10000 (in form of 10 % discount for 1000 books)

So, for a book where MRP is Rs 100, the Rs 100 is distributed as per the following

• 10 Author
• 30 Typesetting, Paper, Printing
• 10 Package and Transport
• 20 Margin for Publisher
• 10 Margin for Retailer
• 10 Margin for Shops
• 10 Consumer discount

Now we represent the above values in a figure

I should now caution you that the above 10-30-10-20-10-10-10 may not be exactly the same for all kinds of books. It varies from book to book, but the variation may not be too high or too low

Now, let us the the same figure again

Voila

What do you see

And

What do you observe

And

What do you infer

(seeing is not same as observing and observing is not the same as inferring)

For every book that is published with a MRP of Rs 100, the author gets Rs 10 and the publisher Rs 20 only

This is reality

Every one who gets angry at the royalty of 10 % fail to see the other factors involved in book publishing

It is not that the Publisher gives 10 % and keeps 90 % himself

Now you might have a doubt

Leave alone the 70 percent. Of the 30 %, why can't the publisher give 15 % to the author and have 15 % for himself

Now look at this again carefully. 

The publisher takes responsible for typesetting, designing and printing the book. He invests his money. And he cannot get the money back in one day

It may take years before that amount reaches him from the retailer to the distributor

Sometimes, it may not come at all !! (if the book fails to sell :( ) 

So it is quite logical that at least 10 % have to be kept aside for investment/loan-interest and of the 20 percent, each get 10 per cent each

So the publisher actually gets only 10 %

That is why, throughout the world, from America to Africa. author royalty of 10 % is standardised, whether it is a book regarding Java Programming or Java Coffee making

Of course, there might be some exceptions like Michael Craighton or Shobha De, but the rule is 10 % only

Are you having any of the following questions

1. Can an author himself publish the book
2. Will he get more profit or more trouble, if he publishes himself
3. How to earn more with the books 
4. Some publishers demand money from me for publishing my books. What is this ??
5. What is print on demand
6. 
   

Stay tuned

We will see this one by one

Any other questions / clarifications / suggestions, please enter in the comment below or SMS 98421 11725