Here are fairly standard royalty rates. You should know these.

Hardcover and trade paperback (that’s what you might think of as a big paperback)

First 5,000 copies 10%

Second 5,000 copies 12.5%

More than 10,000 copies 15%

Mass market (that’s the pocket-sized paperback)

First 100,000 copies 4-8%

More than 100,000 6-10%

Now, before you start multiplying your theoretical print run by your hypothetical royalty rate and coming up with answers that have you buying a summer home in Palm Beach, there are a few more things you need to know about royalties.

• Sell-through: what percent of your print run actually sells. Fifty percent is golden.
• The booksellers have up to one year to return unsold copies to the publisher for full credit, so you won’t know for at least a year how many books were actually sold.
• When the publishing company calculates royalties, it will take the number shipped, multiply it by a theoretical sell through, then HOLD BACK a significant percentage of that as an allowance against returns. That allowance will be gradually released over the life of the book.

 

Don’t multiply yet. We need to talk about more of that depressing reality stuff.