6.0409 Royalties Query (1/44)
Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 11 Dec 1992 15:28:46 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0409. Friday, 11 Dec 1992.
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 12:57 CST
From: <BLARSWWY@UIAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: roylaties
TO: Authors of linguistics and language course texts and other
knowledgeable parties:
What is the going rate for author's royalties and advances from major
commercial publishers for course texts?
I have posted this query on two other lists: LINGUIST and ADS-L and have
received only ten replies, although there was general interest in seeing a
summary of the results. A summary of ten doesn't seem that useful, so I
hope that readers of this list will respond.
Based on information already received, it would be useful to know
whether your experience is fairly recent (say within the last
five years) or not,
whether your test is fully authored (as opposed to edited) and to
know the full royalty even if it had to be split with other
editors/authors,
how the royalty was structured with respect to number of copies sold
(does it kick in immediately? does it increase after so many
copies are sold?),
whether the binding was soft or hard,
whether you got a better rate because it was a later edition,
whether you got a better rate because you are well-known,
whether you got a better rate because your topic was "hot",
what your discipline is.
If you published with a minor commercial press or with an academic press,
please so indicate. Also, I will assume that the royalty is based on the
publishers net (i.e. the price paid by the bookstore) rather than the list
(cover) price unless you indicate otherwise.
Please send me any information you have, anonymously if you like, and I
will post a brief summary on all three lists and make a longer summary
available to anyone who requests it. In both cases, I will treat
publishers names, identifying information, and your name confidentially.
Please respond to one of the following:
Bitnet: BLARSWWY at UIAMVS.BITNET
Internet: robert-wachal AT uiowa.edu
Phone: 319-335-0208
S/mail: R. S. Wachal, Dept. of Linguistics, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City,
IA 52240-1408