Re: where to buy books

[Ginna Watts <gwatts -at- PIM -dot- BC -dot- CA>]

I think this is WAAAAYYY off topic, but as a former literary agent I can't
hold my tongue (fingers?) any longer.

At 08:33 AM 6/11/97 -0600, Peter Kent wrote:
>> royalties are stepped -- rate 1 for books purchased by
>> the small stores at standard price, rate 1/x for books purchased
>> by big chains at a deep discount. Most of the books
>> sold -- at least on our royalty statements -- are sold to the
>> big chains.

This is true to a certain extent, although 'most' is an exaggeration. If
the drop in rate is significant, you've been had.  As an aside, they should
also be stepped the other way. (No, 'standard contracts' never include
this. You have to ask, but it was never denied, in my experience). That is,
if more than xx copies are sold, the rate goes up 1%, past yy, another .5%
etc.

>I said that an author's cut is dependent on the discount at which the book
>was sold; the deeper the discount, the less the author earns, and with very
>deep discounts the author's earnings begin to drop dramatically.

Your agent has not done a very good job. Royalty rates should be calculated
(and you can almost always negotiate this) on the 'suggested' retail price.
As Eric noted, such suggested prices are often stepped, but the steps
should not be THAT deep.

>this in its contract: "xxx will not pay royalties on copies of the work that
>xxx sells or disposes of at or below bound cost; e.g., the sum of printing,
>paper, binding, packing, and transport." (That's a typical clause; all
>contracts have something similar to this.) Remaindered books are generally
>sold at or below bound cost--they're just clearing out stock--so the author
>will generally get nothing from the sale.

From an agent's point of view, I'll tell you this:  first of all, anything
and everything is negotiable. Just because a clause appears in a
publisher's boilerplate contract, does NOT mean it has to stay there. (I
remember one publisher whose standard contract included a clause for 'Theme
Park Rights'. Since the book was a wilderness first aid handbook, we let
that one go :).  BUT, we used to have a saying: If you are getting
royalties, we haven't done our job. If it actually comes down to royalties,
if you've earned out your advance, then you need to renegotiate a bigger
advance on the next book. If you consistently earn out and are relying on
the trickle down of royalties, it's time to find yourself a new agent.

Whew! I feel better.

Ginna


Ginna Watts - Technical Writer
Pacific International Mapping Corp.
gwatts -at- pim -dot- bc -dot- ca

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html