We work with authors on a royalty basis, which is common in the publishing industry. Our authors are typically paid a royalty, which is agreed as a percentage of net sales, on each book sold. The royalty amounts are different for different markets (UK/Home sales, Export etc) and different again for international rights sales and ebooks. In some instances we pay authors an advance before the publication date and royalties earnt from inital sales cover the cost of this advance. Advances can be agreed to be paid on contract signature, manuscript submission and publication date.
There are occasional projects where we will agree a fixed fee for work with an author.
Since 2021, David and Charles has paid author royalties on a quarterly basis. Royalties are calculated per quarter and paid before the end of the subequent quarter (so for example, royalties for the period January to March are paid by the end of June). It is more typical in the industry for royalties to be paid ona 6 monthly, or even annual, basis. We believe paying royalties quarterly is fairer for our authors.
Royalties are calculated on the basis of sales files from our distributor sales systems and processed in our Biblio publishing management system. Royalty statements are accessed through an online portal and authors will be sent a link to this. The portal also allows you to view prior period statements. Managing royalty statements in this way helps us handle the administration of quarterly payments.
Following the acquisition of the Veloce imprint on 1st February 2024, David and Charles completed an initial royalty run for sales up to the 31st January 2024. The current Veloce author royalty period will be for sales from 1st February 2024 to 31st December 2024. Veloce authors will be paid royalties on a quarterly basis from 1st January 2025.
For any questions relating to royalties, please speak to your editorial contact or contact us here.
