The Authors Guild wants publishers to split its royalties with authors and pay 50 percent of profits on e-books to authors.
As part of its push for a “Fair Contract Initiative,” the Guild has asserted that today’s standard contracts aren’t fair in paying only 25 percent of publisher’s net receipts. The Authors Guild explains their position in this blog:
Traditionally, the author-publisher partnership was an equal one. Authors earned around 50% of their books’ profits. That equal split is reflected in the traditional hardcover royalty of 15% of list (cover price, that is, not the much lower wholesale price), and in the 50-50 split of publishers’ earnings from selling paperback, book club, or reprint rights. Authors generally received an even larger share than the publisher for non-print rights (such as stage and screen rights) and foreign rights.