Friday, October 03, 2014

Harper Offers Authors Additional Net Royalty For Online Direct Sales Referrals

Publishers Lunch


As promised in July when HarperCollins relaunched their web site to focus on making their full catalog of books, ebooks and audiobooks available for sale to consumers, the company is now ready to provide additional compensation to "our authors who want to sell directly" via Harper's shopping cart. Authors who add a linked HarperCollins "buy" button on their sites or directly integrate the Harper shopping cart will receive an additional 10 percent of net on those sales, to be credited through their regular twice-annual royalty statements. Authors interested in implementing the new offer should start by contacting their editors, though the company is also "going to reach out to quite a number of authors directly" to elicit participation.

HarperCollins ceo Brian Murray said that after internal discussions they "settled on an incremental 10 percent of net royalty" as "the right incentive for authors" to help drive direct sales. "We have spoken to a few people about it, and it was well received from the author-agent community as a step in the right direction," though of course many authors and agents still believe that all ebook sales should earn a higher royalty. On Harper-executed ebook sales the program provides authors with 35 percent of net including their regular royalty (or 40 percent more than the standard royalty); on hardcovers, depending on the net calculation, it could boost the royalty by an even larger percentage. The additional royalties apply only to sales of an author's own books (e.g. it's not a commission across the entire shopping cart of referred customers, as some online retail affiliate programs pay).

"It's appropriate that authors get a higher share of the income" on those direct sales, Murray says, adding that "now is the time we can finally be clear about it" as their sales platform is established. As for results so far from the site, Murray acknowledges, "it's early days and the volumes are very small, but you've got to start somewhere." As an example, Steve Harvey is among their top authors right now and "he's probably been the most active" in driving his readers to Harper's site. "He has used the shopping cart, and it has moved volumes."

Murray reiterated that the publisher's "first goal is to sell through our trusted retail partners," but "in today's world, we have to give authors alternatives." The program starts now in the US, and will be extended to other Harper international divisions "over the coming months" according to the release.

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