Hi everyone, I'm new here so please be gentle! I have a question about publishing contracts. Brief backstory first though; I wrote and illustrated a children's book called The Panda bear who came to stay... for my own children last Christmas and they loved it. I decided to self publish on Amazon and have received great feedback but now want to get it out to a wider audience. All good so far but I thought publishing contracts always worked by giving the author an advance, and then royalties on units sold.
However, I've been offered a contributory publishing contract for £1,900 with 25% royalties on net profit and I was wondering if this is normal nowadays and if it sounds good??
My initial thoughts are; how much is 25% net profit of a book that may retail for say, £5.99? Obviously actual sales numbers would be very difficult to predict, but on average, how many copies do children's books sell by first time authors??
I'd love to get my book into bookshops, and ultimately children's bookshelves, but just need to know if I'm likely to recoup my £1,900 outlay.
Any help would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks,
David Howlett
David, oops, I goofed in answering your question. Don't pay the publisher the £1900. I seriously doubt you will recoup your outlay.
David, congratulations on hooking a publisher.
A debut author can expect to receive 8-12% royalties. But royalties are not calculated on the price on the jacket-cover. Publishers can give discounts of 50%-65% to wholesalers, book clubs, supermarket chains.
Say for example your book is priced at £5. You would receive 25p a copy if the retailer received a 50% discount to stock your book. That's £250 in royalties for every thousand sales, and £25.000 in royalties for 100.000 sales. So don't pack in your day job.
Your offer sounds excellent, however, I have to query the £1900 it has cost you. I hope the £1900 was for professional editorial services - and not a series of payments to your publisher.
I hope that helps.
Good luck.