What They Send You; What You Send Them

Copyrights, Contracts, & Guidelines for Dinosaur Artists & Paleontologists

Part 2 Contracts

What They Send You;
What You Send Them Considering how popular dinosaur books are with the book-buying public, my research leads me to the conclusion that, on average, the advances and royalties offered to authors and author/illustrators of books about dinosaurs lag behind industry standards, (even compared to so-called “genre” literature such as science fiction.) Advances against royalties have been offered as low as $1,500. with royalties offered as low as 5% of net price. (Net price is the amount of money the publisher gets.) These are well below standard, and even if book writing or illustrating is not your primary source of income, you should counter such low offers with better terms; for the sake of the perceived value of the field, if nothing else.
I have examined a number of publisher’s contracts to write this section of the manual and, although royalties are negotiable and offers vary from company to company, some general royalty rate guidelines at the present time are:

for an author/illustrator of a children’s picture book, the basic royalty should be 10% of the retail price, increasing to 15% after a certain number of copies are sold. Advance against royalty varies widely, from $1,500 to $15,000, and not all, but a number of publishers expect to see a nearly complete mock-up of the book before they buy, (at least for a first-time author/illustrator.) The author of a children’s picture book which will be illustrated by someone else should negotiate for 5% of the retail sales, with the illustrator getting the other 5% and sharing royalty percentage increases with the author in copies sold beyond a certain number, (which does not seem to be standardized.)

for an adult hardcover, (not a textbook,) basic royalties at present seem quite standardized. In all contracts I examined, publishers offered 10% of the retail price for the first 5,000 copies, 12 1/2% for the next 5,000 copies and 15% of the retail price on all copies over 10,000. (The contracts I’m looking at all came through an agent, and any author who must be his or her own agent should take note of these numbers when negotiating.)

For high-quality, so-called “trade paperback” editions of a book which have been produced by the same publisher in hardcover or are original in this format, larger number of copies are usually produced, but the royalty rates are somewhat smaller. 6-8% royalty on the first 10,000 - 25,000 copies is the range to expect at this time.

Often, when books are considered to be scientific or technical, the publisher will want to have royalties based on the net price. Royalties in this situation should be a minimum of 15% to 20% of the net price and be negotiated to an increase of 3% to 5% after sales of 10,000 copies and go even higher for copy sales above that. Textbooks have a lower royalty rate, usually 10% of the net sales.

A number of situations can occur which will reduce an author’s royalties, including publishing decisions to sell the books at a higher discount to wholesalers, sell to book clubs, or sell as “remaindered”, (bargain basement bin sort of liquidation sales of overstock.) When you’re looking at your contract, determine what percentage of the copies of your book the publisher is allowed sell in these ways and try to negotiate limits to these highly discounted sales. Except for the book club sales, these discounts do you no real good, they’re all for the sake of the publisher. Another thing to watch out for in your contract, if your royalties are based on the net price, (what the publisher actually gets,) is the inclusion of any clause that permits royalty reduction to you to compensate for bad debts.

Once compensation terms have been agreed to the author and illustrator have to define what copyrights will be licensed to the publisher. As I mentioned before, publishers are asking for a lot these days, without any increase in compensation to the artist or author. Many publishers now want the right to produce editions of the books worldwide and in all languages, where once, they only demanded first North American book rights. It is still a good idea to limit the copyrights you license as much as you feel you can, and always reserve all rights you feel the publisher does not have the ability to sell at the time you sign the contract, regardless of what future plans they may have. There is no point in giving them something they can’t even use, just because they say they want it.

An author should reserve all non-publishing rights, such as film, television, CD or computer versions, and books on tape; as well as any subsidiary rights to license characters to other media, or reprints to another publisher. An illustrator should reserve the non-publishing rights listed above as well as the rights to make his/her art into toys, t-shirts, posters, calendars and other products. The author and/or illustrator must not allow any provision in the contract which would restrict his/her ability to work on projects the publisher deems “competitive”.

Additional points to be negotiated or considered are:

the right to decide or at least accept, the book’s final title

placement of authorship and/or illustrator credit. (Believe it or not, we are seeing a return to the bad old days for illustrators where credit is not offered in contracts. Demand it. Being credited for good work in a book is how you will get other illustration work.)

royalty statements every six months specifying the number of copies sold in each negotiated royalty category.

coverage under the publisher’s insurance policy against copyright infringement and libel and related legal violations.

free copies of the book to the author or artist (at least 10) and some decision-making ability in the book’s promotion terms. (The publisher should be responsible for paying all expenses and a per diem to the author for a book tour.)

and, the author/illustrator’s best friend, the “reversion clause”. This is the clause which determines at what point the book is considered to be out-of-print, and allows the author/illustrator to write a letter requesting a publishing decision on the book within 6 months, and states that if a re-print of sufficient quantity is not undertaken by the publisher within another 6 months, (1 year from the letter,) all rights revert to the author and/or illustrator. (Which, of course, means you can sell the project to another publisher!) The author and illustrator might also consider reversion if the publisher does not publish the work within a specified period of time after delivery of the manuscript, in which case the manuscript should be returned immediately to the author.

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		Part 2 Contracts

What They Send You; What You Send Them		Considering how popular dinosaur books are with the book-buying public, my research leads me to the conclusion that, on average, the advances and royalties offered to authors and author/illustrators of books about dinosaurs lag behind industry standards, (even compared to so-called “genre” literature such as science fiction.) Advances against royalties have been offered as low as $1,500. with royalties offered as low as 5% of net price. (Net price is the amount of money the publisher gets.) These are well below standard, and even if book writing or illustrating is not your primary source of income, you should counter such low offers with better terms; for the sake of the perceived value of the field, if nothing else. I have examined a number of publisher’s contracts to write this section of the manual and, although royalties are negotiable and offers vary from company to company, some general royalty rate guidelines at the present time are: for an author/illustrator of a children’s picture book, the basic royalty should be 10% of the retail price, increasing to 15% after a certain number of copies are sold. Advance against royalty varies widely, from $1,500 to $15,000, and not all, but a number of publishers expect to see a nearly complete mock-up of the book before they buy, (at least for a first-time author/illustrator.) The author of a children’s picture book which will be illustrated by someone else should negotiate for 5% of the retail sales, with the illustrator getting the other 5% and sharing royalty percentage increases with the author in copies sold beyond a certain number, (which does not seem to be standardized.) for an adult hardcover, (not a textbook,) basic royalties at present seem quite standardized. In all contracts I examined, publishers offered 10% of the retail price for the first 5,000 copies, 12 1/2% for the next 5,000 copies and 15% of the retail price on all copies over 10,000. (The contracts I’m looking at all came through an agent, and any author who must be his or her own agent should take note of these numbers when negotiating.) For high-quality, so-called “trade paperback” editions of a book which have been produced by the same publisher in hardcover or are original in this format, larger number of copies are usually produced, but the royalty rates are somewhat smaller. 6-8% royalty on the first 10,000 - 25,000 copies is the range to expect at this time. Often, when books are considered to be scientific or technical, the publisher will want to have royalties based on the net price. Royalties in this situation should be a minimum of 15% to 20% of the net price and be negotiated to an increase of 3% to 5% after sales of 10,000 copies and go even higher for copy sales above that. Textbooks have a lower royalty rate, usually 10% of the net sales. A number of situations can occur which will reduce an author’s royalties, including publishing decisions to sell the books at a higher discount to wholesalers, sell to book clubs, or sell as “remaindered”, (bargain basement bin sort of liquidation sales of overstock.) When you’re looking at your contract, determine what percentage of the copies of your book the publisher is allowed sell in these ways and try to negotiate limits to these highly discounted sales. Except for the book club sales, these discounts do you no real good, they’re all for the sake of the publisher. Another thing to watch out for in your contract, if your royalties are based on the net price, (what the publisher actually gets,) is the inclusion of any clause that permits royalty reduction to you to compensate for bad debts. Once compensation terms have been agreed to the author and illustrator have to define what copyrights will be licensed to the publisher. As I mentioned before, publishers are asking for a lot these days, without any increase in compensation to the artist or author. Many publishers now want the right to produce editions of the books worldwide and in all languages, where once, they only demanded first North American book rights. It is still a good idea to limit the copyrights you license as much as you feel you can, and always reserve all rights you feel the publisher does not have the ability to sell at the time you sign the contract, regardless of what future plans they may have. There is no point in giving them something they can’t even use, just because they say they want it. An author should reserve all non-publishing rights, such as film, television, CD or computer versions, and books on tape; as well as any subsidiary rights to license characters to other media, or reprints to another publisher. An illustrator should reserve the non-publishing rights listed above as well as the rights to make his/her art into toys, t-shirts, posters, calendars and other products. The author and/or illustrator must not allow any provision in the contract which would restrict his/her ability to work on projects the publisher deems “competitive”. Additional points to be negotiated or considered are: the right to decide or at least accept, the book’s final title placement of authorship and/or illustrator credit. (Believe it or not, we are seeing a return to the bad old days for illustrators where credit is not offered in contracts. Demand it. Being credited for good work in a book is how you will get other illustration work.) royalty statements every six months specifying the number of copies sold in each negotiated royalty category. coverage under the publisher’s insurance policy against copyright infringement and libel and related legal violations. free copies of the book to the author or artist (at least 10) and some decision-making ability in the book’s promotion terms. (The publisher should be responsible for paying all expenses and a per diem to the author for a book tour.) and, the author/illustrator’s best friend, the “reversion clause”. This is the clause which determines at what point the book is considered to be out-of-print, and allows the author/illustrator to write a letter requesting a publishing decision on the book within 6 months, and states that if a re-print of sufficient quantity is not undertaken by the publisher within another 6 months, (1 year from the letter,) all rights revert to the author and/or illustrator. (Which, of course, means you can sell the project to another publisher!) The author and illustrator might also consider reversion if the publisher does not publish the work within a specified period of time after delivery of the manuscript, in which case the manuscript should be returned immediately to the author.

		<< Previous \| Top of Page \| Contents \| W&K Publications \| Next >>