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Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

I do feel like publishers sometimes sneak under the radar a bit on this front. Like we all hear about Hollywood math and Music Industry Math, but every time I tell someone outside of the industry about basket accounting they act like I just killed a puppy in front of them.

Marie 🇨🇦⚜️

The people in the music industry consistently say “wait, what the fuck” when they find out how some parts of the publishing industry works, and I feel like this isn’t acknowledged enough Like yeah, all corporations suck, but publishing has a particular flavour of sucking

Обсуждение

4 прямых ответов · 28 сообщений

Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

Or you explain to someone what a six figure advance actually means if it's for 3 books and paid out in 3rds. Or 4ths. OR 5THS. lol

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

(no one wants to hear my really dark truth: amazon publishing paid us in halves, paid us 35% list price on digital sales, and when we signed a contract or delivered a book? the check would hit within 1-3 weeks. also their royalty statements make sense. lol)

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

btw this was not to say I think basket accounting is worth than Hollywood or the music industry. it feels pretty on par. I just feel like publishers don't have the same reputation for playing dirty accounting with authors and like... man the Harlequin ebook class action was UNHINGED MATH lol

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

bsky.app/profile/most...

Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

if you don't know about the Harlequin ebook royalty class action lawsuit, that was a wild trip where authors whose contracts didn't have specific ebook language were meant to be getting 50% net of ebook royalties so HQN licensed the ebooks to another arm of the company for nickles & paid 50% of that

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Micah

I have known enough authors at this point to have a full body shudder when I hear the term

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Courtney Milan

I still haven't figured out why Harlequin claimed they were getting like 20% of what every other publisher were getting on audiobooks they were just hiding it b/c they didn't give sales numbers but they were like "no, shrug, we just get less than other publishers!"

Ответ для Courtney Milan
Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

SURE YOU DO, HARLEQUIN

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Courtney Milan

I think this is where I got the "if you want to audit us, go ahead, but we keep our books in Switzerland"

Ответ для Courtney Milan
Rsquared

You're gonna need forensic accountants *and* Danny Ocean.

Ответ для Rsquared
Jason R. Merrill

And a cash sniffing dog...

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Lev Mirov

I told one of my friends that she's a statistical anomaly for profit on her books because she earned out her extremely low advance and has royalties every quarter over $1 and I thought I was going to be responsible for her death. This industry just sucks!!!

Ответ для Lev Mirov
Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

we earned out our $45k advance on Deal with the Devil but we will not see royalties any time soon because of joint accounting, man. lol Like I love it that those books had a moment earlier this year but we will not see any money from it!

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Lev Mirov

It's just bonkers hard to explain to people how nobody in this industry can pay their bills every week without generational wealth or other sources of income because we don't get paid in a straightforward or even timely way that reflects rent being due every month.

Ответ для Lev Mirov
Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

also with our last refinance they once again just used my husband's modest teacher salary because they don't know what to do with "sometimes I get $50k and then I get nothing for months" as income. lol

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Damiana Swan

And let's not even bring up work for hire.

Sarah Tolcser

My husband is an attorney and the year (year!!) I worked on a book with my editor without a contract almost drove him insane. Went all the way up to copyedits.

Ответ для Sarah Tolcser
Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Sarah Tolcser

not a small publisher! PRH! He kept spluttering, "can't you refuse? No other industry works like this!!"

Ответ для Sarah Tolcser
Bree (half of Kit Rocha)

honestly I feel like most small publishers are far more on the ball with contracts. the one time we got asked to hand in a book without one (we did not) it was Harlequin lol

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Sarah Tolcser

my agent at that point said we were not doing the copyedits without it, and it came, and it was fine. But the point is no one else works like this.

Ethan

Is basket accounting the thing where all of your books in a series have to earn out collectively before you get paid for any of them?

Ответ для Ethan
Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Cindyloohoo73

This sounds like the most evil "compensation" shit I've ever heard of.

Ответ для Bree (half of Kit Rocha)
Natanael, Tech janitor

Does this include editions?

Ответ для Ethan
Emily

What.

Ответ для Emily
Hipster Viking Amy

It’s so bad

Diandra Mae

It really trips people up when you explain all this in terms for children’s publishing, too. “Wait, but you make books for CHILDREN. Shouldn’t things make a little more sense?” 🫠