Musa Royalties Information
Every author wants to know what their royalties are going to be. At Musa, we believe in absolute transparency involving the royalty system. So here we're going to lay it all out for you as we've specified money matters in our contract.
Musa royalties are set up as the following:
- For trade paperback copies sold less returns: 15% percent (FIFTEEN) of the cover price received for each sale made directly on the Musa Press site.
- For trade paperback copies sold less returns: 15% percent (FIFTEEN) of the net price for each sale made on third-party wholesalers, distributors, resellers, or vendors sites.
- For electronic edition copies sold: fifty percent (50%) of the cover price received for each sale made directly off the Musa Press site.
- For electronic edition copies sold: fifty percent (50%) of the NET amount received for each sale made directly from third-party wholesalers, distributors, resellers, or vendors.
- For electronic edition copies sold on sale: fifty percent (50%) of the sale price received for each sale made on the Musa Press site.
Here's how we define those terms.
50% of ebook cover price sold on our site goes to the author. If your book is priced at $4.99, you get $2.50 for every book sold.
50% of ebook NET from third party sites goes to the author. We'd love to pay you 50% of cover price there too, but we can't. Third party sites take out their share—and that share is different at each site. If, for example, your book sells for $4.99 on Amazon, we get 70% of that cover price for each sale-- $3.50. Because we like to pay editors and artists too, we'll pay you $1.75 of that $3.50.
Why can't we pay you 50% of cover? Because some vendors, like ARE and Bookstrand, only pay US 50% of cover. That leaves nothing for your editor and artist. So, 50% of the net royalty per book--$1.75—is what we will pay you.
Examples of third party sites pay these percentages to us per book sold (these percentages may change at any moment and some have further levels of payment, but this will give you an idea):
Amazon—70% for books priced above $2.99; 35% for books priced below $2.99
All Romance Ebooks—50% per book sold
Bookstrand—50% per book sold
Smashwords—85% of what THEY get from other sites. So if they get 50% from Barnes and Noble, for example, they pay us 85% of that. And we pay you 50% of that.
Fictionwise—50% AFTER the book sales supersede $50. Fictionwise charges each publisher a 50$ publishing fee, Once you hit $50 in sales you get 50% of what Musa receives.
Yes, we know it's confusing. But that's how the vendors set things up. This is why we encourage authors to send readers to the Musa site to buy their books—so you can make the most money per unit sold.
50% of sale price for books listed on the Musa site. So, if we put your book on sale—from $4.99 to 3.99, for example, you will receive $2.00 (50% of sale price) instead of $2.50. Our prices are low enough that we don't think we'll ever have to put your book on sale. But in case we do, there you are.
PRINT—Musa will select books for our print line based upon sales. If your sales reach a certain level, your book will go into print. At that time, for any book sold on our site you will receive 15% of the cover price and through a third party you receive 15% of the net.
Musa royalties are calculated in an online database that our authors and editors have access to at any time. Your royalty statements will be posted there every month, so you can always see what your royalties were at any time. Royalties will be paid on the 15th of every month, 45 days after the pay period ends. For example, royalties from March sales will be paid on May 15th. We will pay royalties from third party vendors on the royalty payment for the month in which they were received. So if they pay us on March 28, you get paid on May 15th. We will not pay royalties from third party vendors until Musa receives the funds.
Our accounting system is available at any time for any author to view and self-audit. We will enable authors to track their sales on the Musa site, and their sales numbers will be provided from third party sites at the end of each month. We believe in full transparency with our accounting system and royalties. You won't even have to ask us; your numbers will be available to you at any time.
Thank you!
