What is the royalty rate for authors? ?

Question

I want to know what the normal royalty rate for most authors. And also how much does a bestselling novelist earn. What do you suppose is the royalty rate of authors like JK Rowling, John Grisham, Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer.

Is it also possible for you to become rich by writing books?

Please answer all my questions!

Thanks :-)

Answer 1

Little,

Authors are paid about 15% of the book sales. The literary agent who sells the book to a publisher gets the same deal most of the time. So, if your book sells for $15.00, you'd get roughly $2.25 per book sold.

The money comes in when it's a million seller on the NY Times best seller list, or if they make a movie out of it. You figure a million times $2.25 . . . do the math. Then on top of that maybe $300,000 to sell the rights to a producer.

PJ M

Answer 2

Well... JK is richer than the Queen.  That's how good she is. I would guess that all top selling authors have around the same money, as the Queen or more.

Answer 3

for an average author, it really isnt that much. for one book that sells, u only get like less than 10 percent of the profit and even then thats nothing. those authors u mentioned, theyve written tons of books and were sold throughout the entire planet so theyd probably get a few million just for one book. and yes it is possible to become rich writing books, but ud have to write somethin as spectacular as harry potter or somethin. if u jsut sold a few books, no way ur gonna become rich

Answer 4

Their is no set rate. It all depends on how much the publisher wants to invest in your writing and/or storytelling skills. Most formula fiction writers can make about $30,000 a year. But formula fiction is the bottom of the barrel. A lot of those types of authors use pen name because no one really wants to admit to doing that type of work. But it does pay the bills.

I believe that Stephenie Meyer got paid $750, 000 for producing a certain amount of books for the Twilight Series. But she also had a deadline. The contract probably went something like this: We pay you $750,000 for the rights to edit, publish, and distribute your book and write 4 books over the course of 5 years. But you have to remember that her book sales probably raked in 10 times the amount she is actually getting paid but all that money goes to publisher and other people behind the scenes. She gets famous. They get rich. Its just like the music industry.

Edit: A lot of people are richer than the Queen. David Beckham is richer than the Queen. JK Rowling is making so much money because she gets royalties from toys, movies, and apparel. All of her money does not come from the books alone.