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Professionals from the publishing industry converged in Melbourne recently to discuss one of the biggest challenges writers face – how to collect fair and equitable payment while working within a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
At the recent Wheeler Centre panel, How do writers get paid? American science fiction author Cory Doctorow, literary agent Alex Adsett, and Zoë Rodriguez, a former copyright expert and lawyer at the Arts Law Centre of Australia, debated the issue from the perspective of online and book publishing.
Panellists also discussed ways to navigate the sometimes murky waters of copyright collection and current trends that can affect this. The discussion was facilitated by Monash University academic Dr Rebecca Giblin.
Here are some of their tips to help both publishers and writers make money.
Increase your leverage
Doctorow’s comments pointed to the advantage writers have when they can capitalise on their success.
‘What produces higher income for writers is leverage and that can come in a lot of different forms,’ he said.
‘This can come on the basis of already having done something significant; writers sometimes get a two-book deal for a very modest sum of money but then, if those books perform well, they’ll get a third book deal for a much larger sum of money. Sometimes we also get leverage through statutory instruments that require publishers to pay us in certain ways – through collecting societies.’
The Australian Copyright Council defines copyright collecting societies as not-for-profit organisations that license or administer certain uses of copyright material on behalf of their members (who are copyright owners). The licence fees collected are distributed to members. In Australia, this includes the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) for literature.
Literary agent Alex Adsett also noted that the popularity of a book can increase the amount the author gets paid.
‘If you’re in a great situation where you get a bidding war between publishers, those are the situations where the author has the power to dictate some of the terms,’ she said.
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Engage a contract review service
For authors who don’t have an agent, a contract review service is a good way of allowing someone to make sure they aren’t getting a raw deal.
‘For authors who don’t have an agent, don’t want one, can’t get one, or can’t seem to get legal advice from a private lawyer, the Arts Law Centre of Australia, in partnership with the Australian Society of Authors, provides a contract review service for authors,’ said Zoë Rodriguez.
‘They are very aware of the items where there may be difference between what an author wants and what a publisher might have as a standard clause. It’s an affordable way of getting advice.’
Negotiate royalty rises
Big advances aren’t the only way to make money from your work. ‘If a publisher isn’t willing or able to offer a decent advance, you then have to look at the royalty structure…in Australia, standard royalties are 10% of the recommended retail price,’ Adsett said.
‘Talk to the publisher about the possibility of a rise in royalty; the idea behind that being, if the book is successful that author will be remunerated no matter what, so it shouldn’t matter how big the advance is, as long as there’s a decent royalty structure.’
Doubling your ebook royalties
Doctorow said his new ebook platform, Shutup and Take My Money, allows traditionally published authors to serve as retailers for their publishers. This gives them an opportunity to sell their ebook direct to their fans and pocket the 30% that Amazon would usually take, as well as the 25% the publisher gives back to them later in royalties.
‘I have a US and Commonwealth publisher and often readers are told, “Sorry your credit card is localised to the wrong territory so we won’t sell you a book,”‘ he said.
‘This platform allows me to make an offer to my readers that no one else can make. I do it in a way that remunerates my publishers for the marketing that they put in, and the editorial work they do and I make sure my agent is in the loop.’
Doctorow said he’ll be launching the platform soon to help other writers increase their cash flow.
‘We’ll be open sourcing the software so any author can run it or authors’ societies can run it for their authors and it’s a way to realise what a lot of authors groups have asked for, which is double the e-book royalties. It allows you to do it without having to change the deal with the publisher.’
This article is based on the panel discussion, How Do Writers Get Paid?, held at The Wheeler Centre on 28 February.
