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Incoming: distressed author who needs (alcohol? chocolate? a nap?) help!
On April 29th, my small press publisher announced they were closing on May 31st and authors' rights would revert June 1st. The catch: because their model was team publishing with royalty split, the contracts we'd signed mandated that authors need to continue sharing royalties for the duration of the term. Each book's agreement was for five years.
Cue the panic attack. I'm broke. Being with small press publisher actually resulted in a hit to my income. (They didn't distribute to Kobo, and previously, Kobo was paying my bills because of their majestic indie promo list.) Re-publishing would cost me more (I had to update four books' ebook files (fees to Vellum), paperback files (free; DIY), and covers (fees to designers) to remove all instances of the publisher). I knew I couldn't afford to LLC and hire an accountant. There was no way. (Side note: some authors' team members started demanding payouts rather than royalties, which they weren't entitled to. This was another panic attack. Other authors' team members absolved authors from any further payment.)
Someone suggested I use Lulu to self-publish, because they distribute everywhere and also have a nifty feature that allows you to share royalties. But of course, there's a catch.
I'd settled up with my team -- who were all wonderful about the whole thing -- and was ready to go at midnight. I'd gone direct with Kobo (to take advantage of those promos), and logged into my Lulu dashboard just to check everything over and uncheck Kobo from the distribution list. Unchecking Kobo resulted in Amazon automatically being unchecked, too.
Apparently Lulu doesn't allow you to distribute to Amazon if you deselect "Kobo and others." This is not the first oddity I've run into with them, but I digress.
I'm not missing out on Amazon and I'm not missing out on my Kobo promos, so obviously I need to just go direct everywhere. That's fine; I was indie before the small press and I don't plan on going with another publisher ever again. This has been such a mess. But how in the world am I going to accurately calculate royalties to be paid out to several other people?
I can't afford an accountant. I seriously can't even afford a dollar pack of gum right now. Times are tough. I have autoimmune arthritis and can't work a "normal" job. My husband works full-time and it just supports our rent and bills.
I stayed calm all throughout May minus that initial crying fit, and now this. I'm on the verge of another panic attack.
I know a lot of you do box sets and share royalties. How do you do it?
Please help. Thanks in advance.
Update #1: Thank you so much to everyone who weighed in! I've contacted my team members with a more suitable arrangement for everyone.
On April 29th, my small press publisher announced they were closing on May 31st and authors' rights would revert June 1st. The catch: because their model was team publishing with royalty split, the contracts we'd signed mandated that authors need to continue sharing royalties for the duration of the term. Each book's agreement was for five years.
Cue the panic attack. I'm broke. Being with small press publisher actually resulted in a hit to my income. (They didn't distribute to Kobo, and previously, Kobo was paying my bills because of their majestic indie promo list.) Re-publishing would cost me more (I had to update four books' ebook files (fees to Vellum), paperback files (free; DIY), and covers (fees to designers) to remove all instances of the publisher). I knew I couldn't afford to LLC and hire an accountant. There was no way. (Side note: some authors' team members started demanding payouts rather than royalties, which they weren't entitled to. This was another panic attack. Other authors' team members absolved authors from any further payment.)
Someone suggested I use Lulu to self-publish, because they distribute everywhere and also have a nifty feature that allows you to share royalties. But of course, there's a catch.
I'd settled up with my team -- who were all wonderful about the whole thing -- and was ready to go at midnight. I'd gone direct with Kobo (to take advantage of those promos), and logged into my Lulu dashboard just to check everything over and uncheck Kobo from the distribution list. Unchecking Kobo resulted in Amazon automatically being unchecked, too.
Apparently Lulu doesn't allow you to distribute to Amazon if you deselect "Kobo and others." This is not the first oddity I've run into with them, but I digress.
I'm not missing out on Amazon and I'm not missing out on my Kobo promos, so obviously I need to just go direct everywhere. That's fine; I was indie before the small press and I don't plan on going with another publisher ever again. This has been such a mess. But how in the world am I going to accurately calculate royalties to be paid out to several other people?
I can't afford an accountant. I seriously can't even afford a dollar pack of gum right now. Times are tough. I have autoimmune arthritis and can't work a "normal" job. My husband works full-time and it just supports our rent and bills.
I stayed calm all throughout May minus that initial crying fit, and now this. I'm on the verge of another panic attack.
I know a lot of you do box sets and share royalties. How do you do it?
Please help. Thanks in advance.
Update #1: Thank you so much to everyone who weighed in! I've contacted my team members with a more suitable arrangement for everyone.