Reversal of Royalties: A Modest Proposal

When does a book go out of print if it is made available in eBook?

Many contracts, particularly those pre-dating the eBook explosion, are not clear on this point. Some clauses state if sales fall below some ridiculously low number, like less than 100 sold on the last two royalty statements. That means a publisher can keep rights to a book if it sells just 100 copies in a year.

That does neither the publisher, nor the author, much good. It is actually an inducement for authors to NOT promote their books, hoping sales fall low enough to get the rights back. To make the effort to promote a book at 25% of 70% for eBooks is not that thrilling. And for any book that has not earned out, there is zero incentive.

I propose a solution: Reverse royalties.

Give the rights to the book back to the author, along with rights to the cover (if available) and an electronic version of the edited book. In return, the author pays the publisher a 25% royalty. I can assure the publisher that they will make more money this way than keeping the rights, and I have the numbers to back this up (later in blog).

Source: Digital Book World