Royalty Payments for College Textbook Supplements and Ancillaries

I wrote last month about work-for-hire agreements for college textbook supplements and ancillaries. Now let’s examine the other payment possibility: royalties.

Royalty payments are rare for supplement authors. For royalties to be an option, you would typically need to create a supplement that would be sold to students, such as a study guide or a solutions manual for a math or science book. Even for such supplements, the editor will still likely offer you a lump-sum, work-for-hire payment.

If you are offered a contract with royalties, study it very carefully. Ask about projected sales of the supplement and how much you will make off each supplement. Ask about future editions of the supplement and what your rights will be for those future editions.

Be aware that if you negotiate a royalties contract, you could wind up making very little money if the textbook doesn’t sell well, or if students just aren’t that interested in buying the supplement you created.

Also ask about an advance against royalties. This means the publisher gives you a certain amount of money (the advance) upfront. You only make money beyond the advance once the supplement has sold enough copies to pay back your advance. And be sure that there is no clause requiring you to pay back the advance if the supplement doesn’t sell well.

A royalty contract is typically more complex than a work-for-hire agreement, and you need to carefully read it in detail and get all your questions answered. I recommend these two books if you will be negotiating a royalty contract:

Crawford, Tad, and Kay Murray. The Writer’s Legal Guide: An Authors Guild Desk Reference. New York: Allworth Press, 2002. Comprehensive guide to the many legal aspects of the writing profession, including contracts.

Evans-Walls, Tonya. Contracts Companion for Writers. Chicago: Legal Write Publications, 2007. Focuses on the many details of contacts; an invaluable resource.

The links take you to Amazon.com, where you can read much more about the books’ contents and see what other readers think. Note that I am an affiliate for Amazon, so if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission.

I have royalty agreements for the two hiking guides I’ve written, and those have worked out fairly well, but I have yet to do a college textbook supplement for royalties — I’ve only done work-for-hire contracts.