August 25, 2014

So that's it!

I always felt uncomfortable calling payments from online retailers a royalty (I usually say "my cut" vs. "Amazon's cut," "Barnes & Noble's cut," etc.  When it came to explaining why, I couldn't explain it, but something told me that the term "royalty" didn't fit.

While reading Hugh Howey's blog yesterday, I saw that he addressed this, and suddenly I knew why that term never felt right to me.  This is what Hugh said:

"When they’re called royalties, the 70% seems exceedingly generous. Because publishers pay a lot less. But publishers provide other services, like editing and cover art. We are handing you a finished product. As a distribution fee, you taking 30% (plus more for delivery fees) sounds less crazy-generous. It seems downright reasonable, in fact."

For the rest of his blog entry, in which he makes some suggestions to Amazon, you can read it here.

Thanks, Hugh.