On 3 Apr 2006 at 7:46, Scott Schultz wrote From: "Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> To: "'Dragaera list'" <dragaera at dragaera.info> Date sent: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 07:46:45 -0700 Subject: TPG spotighted at local B. Dalton > It made me wonder, because I've never really understood how the whole > publishing thing works - how do sales of books translate into > royalties for authors? When a book goes into multiple printings, is > the author still paid an advance for each printing or is it somehow > computed based on actual sales? > I have a friend who works in the Royalty dept of a publisher.From what I've gleaned from her the advance/royalty systems works as such (simplified version). An author is given an advance of X dollars before the book is published. After the book is published the author earns a certain percent of each sale but doesn't actually see this money, because he/she has essentially been pe-paid via the advance. Once the advance is "earned out" then the author starts getting royalty checks. Things can get really complicated if there are several authors with differing royalty rates, or the author dies and the heirs squabble over the money, or there are media tie-ins - foreign rights - lawsuits against the author... M Michele Riccio mr1 at rcosta.com