As the Writer you will receive an equal share in the profits from the sale of each book (The profits of the book are split up this way: 50% to the writer and 50% to the publisher. If there is an illustrator for the book that is part of the contract such as for children’s books or a novel that had illustrations inside the book, the profits will be 55% to the illustrator and author and 45% to Truesource Publishing.  The profit margin is the difference between the wholesale price of the book and the printing costs of the book. If the books are purchased through a book dealer or through Starving Writers Books and depending on where the book is purchased at the profits can be different, which is why there is a percentage range.

   If purchased though Starving Writers Books as an author you will always make more money because the profits are the difference between the cost of printing and what we sell the book for. If you sell an e-book then you will make 50% of the profits. When a book is purchased through a book dealer such Ingram books the profits are always lower because the printing cost compared to the wholesale price of the book are always lower and this comes from setting a standard discount (55% off the retail price) on the book, but profits are usually maximized from a larger volume of sales. Places like Barnes and Noble and Borders purchase our books through the book dealers, Ingram books and Baker and Taylor. Here are the percentages of profits for an author based on the retail price of the book.

·         When purchased through a book dealer – 2% -6% off the retail price.

·         When purchased through Starving Writers books 10% -15% off the retail price

         Authors also must understand that they can buy copies of their own book at a discount (40% off the retail price) and they can sell the book for whatever they want keeping all of the profits in the process. Many people may want to buy the book from the author, illustrator, and their agent and do not ask for any kind of profits from this. Our profits as a company will come from the wholesale price we set on the book. However we still want the author, illustrator, and agent to be able to get a great discount on the book when they purchase it from the book. Also please keep in mind that all authors, illustrators, and agents will be able to purchase the book at the same discount so they can sell the book for profit or give away. If a book is purchased through Starving Writers Books by an author, illustrator, or agent then we will make sure that the other parties (authors, illustrators, and agents) who are making a profit from books being sold will get their percentage.

     We will send your profits in the form of a company check alongside your sales report once a month (the 20th of every month) or you can open up a Paypal account so we can transfer you profits to you when your book is purchased though our online services. Paypal is the merchant we use for our online services and they will charge a merchant fee for using their services. If you do not want this then getting your profits would be better in the form of a company check, but we do want to offer the service of paypal. We most likely will do both since other book dealers and stores do not use this particular merchant so our profits as well as yours will come in the form of other paid services and we will have to send you your profits in the form of a company check every month. Also keep in mind that there is a three month delay because book dealers pay on a quarterly basis (all January profits will be sent out in April); this has nothing to do with us, this is the industry standard.  Starving Writers Books is a book dealer as well so sales made from our own book store will be on a three month delay too. The reason for this is to allow for any returns through the book dealers that count against your final sales numbers. These are returns from bookstores sent back through the book dealers and books returned to Starving Writers Books. We have to buy these books back and therefore lose money if we cannot sell them if we cannot sell them. The three month delay on sales allows us to get final sales numbers for you. Your Royalty checks will come from Truesource Media Services, our parent company.

        Every author should know that when it comes to the profits made from the sale of your book you are getting an equal share in the profits and that profits made from selling books are made from volume, not just one or two copies so we will try and get your book into as many stores as possible to sell. The costs to market, sell, and have your book printed is expensive, but your are still making a great percentage of the profits compared to the percentage of profits made through other Publishing companies; please keep in mind that a lot of what we do is standard in the publishing business like for example the profits made from selling a book.

        Profits can also be affected with book returns.  Book stores can return our titles through book dealers such as Ingram Books and Baker & Taylor at the expense of the publisher if they feel the books is not selling and they do not want to lose money from buying the book at a wholesale price to try and sell in their store. This means that when a book is returned we have to buy the book back at the whole sale price set for the book plus a shipping fee to have it sent to our office. This costs us money so of course the expense will also affect the profits the author has already made from the sale of the book.   When books are returned, Truesource Publishing will pay the printing costs of the book, but the difference between the printing cost and wholesale price of the book once it’s been returned will be taken out of the profits an author makes on the sale of their books. This is called the profit loss because it’s based on the profits the author and our publishing firm would have made if the book had not been returned. Here is an example for one book.

Whole sale Price   $ 9.45

Printing Cost       – $5.45

Profit Loss         =  $4.00

The profit loss is what the author would be responsible for each book if returned. The total is a negative cost against future profits. However, when books are returned we store them in our inventory so we can sell them in our stores and hopefully recouping our losses on the book being returned and as the author you would not lose any money. Also if you would like to buy the books returned at a wholesale price to sell on your own then you can.  We hope this never happens, but we want authors to understand how their profits can be affected negatively just like our as a publisher.

     Also authors need to understand if a Book Rep is representing you the commissions for your agent will come from the profits of your book being sold. This is because your agent is representing you on your behalf. An agent for representation of an author for the use of marketing and advertising services and all that it entails then the agent will receive 10% of profits  or fees - . This is included in the book contract.  For services of agent of presentation it can be negotiable and details of the agent of representation does will be outlined in the contract. If there is an event or deal where a writer will make a profit based on their book being published with Truesource Publishing and the book is used to promote that event other regular book sales the agent fee still applies, but out of the 15%, 5% will go to Truesource Publishing as compensation for using our resources to make that event or deal possible.