in reply to Re: Re: Re:^4 New Perl 6 book -- Yes, Perl 6
in thread New Perl 6 book -- Yes, Perl 6

There is no cost as such--the negative paymens are virtual rather than actual. What publishers do is potentially give an author an advance on royalties. Then as the book sells you get a statement (usually semi-annually or quarterly) that shows what the sales have been, what your royalties on those sales are, and what they've paid you so far. If they've paid you more than the sales so far, the royalty statement shows negative.

You can get a negative statement either because you've not sold enough copies to cover the advance, or if the returns exceeded sales for the royalty period. (Which does happen--publishers do take back unsold books in a number of circumstances)

You don't ever have to mail your publisher a check or anything, you just won't get a check from them. (Potentially ever, I suppose, if sales never cover the advance)

  • Comment on Re: Re: Re: Re:^4 New Perl 6 book -- Yes, Perl 6

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:^4 New Perl 6 book -- Yes, Perl 6
by Anonymous Monk on May 30, 2003 at 20:56 UTC

    Could you shed some light on how O'Reilly compensates authors for publishing their works through safari? Thanks.

[reply]
      Erm... I have no clue. (I know--Bad Dan! Read your contracts! :)

      I have an amended contract for P6E sitting at home, so I can see how it works. I expect O'Reilly has it on their website somewhere--none of the info I've posted has been at all proprietary. (I remember finding it when I first went looking, though I don't remember the details now) I expect Safari payments, such as they are, get credited the same way as paper copy royalties.

      If you're interested in writing a book for O'Reilly, this is something to discuss with the editor you get, before you sign the contracts. They're in a far better position to comment on it than I am.

[reply]

        Found it

        8. We will pay you a royalty of 10% of all net income we receive as a result of our distribution of the book, in any form, printed, electronic, or other, or from the license or sale to third parties of any rights in a derivative work. For translated editions published by O’Reilly’s own subsidiaries, we will pay a royalty of 5% of net income. 9. If we include all or part of your book in another book that we publish, you will receive a pro-rata share of the royalties from that book in the proportion that the number of words used from your book bears to the whole book.

        So it appears O'Reilly has handled the situation admirably. I can now sleep soundly knowing their authors are being fairly compensated ;-)

        For anyone else still reading this there's lots more info on O'Reilly's process over at So You Want to Write a Book?

        Thanks for an informative thread :).

[reply]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:^4 New Perl 6 book -- Yes, Perl 6
by Anonymous Monk on May 29, 2003 at 18:52 UTC

    Thanks for the clarification :)

[reply]

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