Yes, probably, but they invest a lot of money and take most of the risk
ursidae Send a noteboard - 21/07/2010 07:44:22 PM
Short answer: I don't know. At all.
Authors typically get an advance against a certain amount of books, and the percentage they would monetarily receive is typically based on a scale such as 10% on the first few thousand hardcover copies and 15% on anything over 10,000 copies. Now what gets tricky is what the percentage is applied to. It can be total sales, the cover price, book club sales, foreign royalties and discounts/promotions also affect this number. Factoring in the fact that most publishers invest a lot of their own money to promote, develop artwork and print the books, and you can see a successful author getting $1.50 out of hardcover, non-fiction book that is sold for $25. Fiction is more popular than non-fiction, so RJ probably made more.
This is why it is hard to nail down a "catch all" number that could describe RJ's earnings over the course of the series - it really comes down to the contractual agreement they had. It is possible, for example, that there were clauses for a certain figure if the series was not successful and ended at 3 books giving RJ a chance to renegotiate after it was proven to be popular and just as possible that he negotiated one deal that covered the entire series regardless of the amount of volumes.
It all depends on the contract. Also, we don't know if RJ owned his house or any other assets in his own name or in dual ownership with Harriet, and that goes a long way towards raising or lowering ones' networth.
Wikipedia lists the figure of 44 million copies sold worldwide as of August 2008. Taking a very liberal estimate, let's say that half of those sales were for hardcovers which sold for $25 and the other half was from paperback editions selling for $8 (not even going to attempt to factor in discounted rates, foreign currency, etc - too complicated and not enough info), and he may have made $43,560,000 in total sales!
The big caveat though is that without knowing the details of his contract and the different factors going into the breakdown of his royalties, we can never know. It is just as likely that he made a lot less due to the size of the books or other factors that would impact the marketability of the series.
Authors typically get an advance against a certain amount of books, and the percentage they would monetarily receive is typically based on a scale such as 10% on the first few thousand hardcover copies and 15% on anything over 10,000 copies. Now what gets tricky is what the percentage is applied to. It can be total sales, the cover price, book club sales, foreign royalties and discounts/promotions also affect this number. Factoring in the fact that most publishers invest a lot of their own money to promote, develop artwork and print the books, and you can see a successful author getting $1.50 out of hardcover, non-fiction book that is sold for $25. Fiction is more popular than non-fiction, so RJ probably made more.
This is why it is hard to nail down a "catch all" number that could describe RJ's earnings over the course of the series - it really comes down to the contractual agreement they had. It is possible, for example, that there were clauses for a certain figure if the series was not successful and ended at 3 books giving RJ a chance to renegotiate after it was proven to be popular and just as possible that he negotiated one deal that covered the entire series regardless of the amount of volumes.
It all depends on the contract. Also, we don't know if RJ owned his house or any other assets in his own name or in dual ownership with Harriet, and that goes a long way towards raising or lowering ones' networth.
Wikipedia lists the figure of 44 million copies sold worldwide as of August 2008. Taking a very liberal estimate, let's say that half of those sales were for hardcovers which sold for $25 and the other half was from paperback editions selling for $8 (not even going to attempt to factor in discounted rates, foreign currency, etc - too complicated and not enough info), and he may have made $43,560,000 in total sales!
The big caveat though is that without knowing the details of his contract and the different factors going into the breakdown of his royalties, we can never know. It is just as likely that he made a lot less due to the size of the books or other factors that would impact the marketability of the series.
Very nice answer. I thank you sir. Doesn't it seem like the publishing company makes a lot more than the author?
I'm curious about the business side of Robert Jordan
- 21/07/2010 02:14:06 PM
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I've done some research on this, because I A) like money and B) am always researching contracts
- 21/07/2010 03:53:49 PM
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Re: I've done some research on this, because I A) like money and B) am always researching contracts
- 21/07/2010 06:30:33 PM
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Yes, probably, but they invest a lot of money and take most of the risk
- 21/07/2010 07:44:22 PM
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