Understanding Your Royalty Statements
Royalty statements are sent by Terri around the beginning of each month for the month prior. We send out royalty checks when an author’s royalties total $50 or more on print and ebook sales together. However, book and ebook distributors don’t make payments on sales the same month they occur, so on your report, we show sales that have been made but not yet paid for as well as sales that have been made and paid.
Your royalty report will have one sheet for each book format that you have with BQB. For instance, if you have one published book with us, you will have a sheet for your printed book and one for your ebook. If you have two published books with us, you will have a sheet for the printed book and one for the ebook for each of the books that BQB publishes for you.
The sheets of your royalty report are divided into two sections:
- Above the yellow highlighted section
- Below the yellow highlighted section
Any transactions that are recorded above the highlighted section are books that have been sold and the money has been received by BQB. Once transactions are recorded above the yellow highlighted section, royalties are paid to authors when the total due to authors exceeds $50. Royalties are paid by BQB by the 10th of each month. If your royalties at the beginning of a month are more than $50, you will be receiving a check that month.
Payment from New Leaf is received by BQB 120+/- days after the end of the month in which the sale was made. For eBook transactions, the money is received from 60-90 days after the end of the month in which the sales was made – the length of time is set by the eBook distributor.
Any transactions recorded below the highlighted section are for books that have been sold but BQB has not yet received the money from the distributor. You can follow your sales below the yellow highlighted section to see where your books are selling the most, i.e. for printed books – Amazon, Ingram, Barnes & Noble, etc. Or for eBooks – Kindle, Nook, Apple, Kobo, or Overdrive (which services a lot of eBook retailers as well as school and public libraries).
The purpose of each column in your royalty report is described below:
For Printed Book Breakdowns
Date Paid – This is the date that the actual payment is received by BQB. It can differ greatly from the date the book was sold if was sold through our distributor.
Date Ordered – This is the actual date a book was sold, or if a book was sold through the distributor, this column will show the month in which it was sold, i.e. 10/1-10/31/2012.
Quantity Ordered – This is the number of books purchased by that particular buyer or entity.
Name of Book – The title of the book covered by the royalty breakdown.
Ordered by – The name of the individual or the name of the company that purchased the book.
City, State, Zip – If your book is ordered by an individual through our website, we provide their city, state, and zip to help you track if your publicity in a certain area has garnered you any results.
Ordered Through – If the book is purchased directly through BQB, that will show in this column. If the book has been sold through our distributor, “New Leaf” will be typed in this column.
Amt Customer(s) Pd for Books – This is the total amount of money paid for the books ordered by an individual or an entity such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ingram, etc. If the books are ordered through our website, this amount will be the SRP (suggested retail price) or a sales price we are offering on our website. If your books have been ordered through New Leaf for Amazon, the amount paid for each book will be 45% of the SRP; if they were ordered through New Leaf by Barnes & Noble, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc., the price paid for each book will be 36% of the SRP. (These discounts are required by these book sellers and wholesalers in order to do business with them. The plus side is that they have the ability to sell hundreds and even thousands of books.)
Taxes Paid – If any taxes were charged to individuals ordering your book through our website, that info will appear here.
Shipping and Handling Paid – If your book is ordered by an individual, we charge them shipping and handling and that amount is recorded in this column.
Total Amount of Order – This is the total amount of money that is due from the sale of your book(s).
Total Net Money Received – This column shows the total amount of the order minus any charges we were assessed if individuals paid for their books by credit card or Paypal.
Paypal or CC Charges – This column shows the amount of any charges we were assessed from a credit card company or Paypal for the order.
Total Minus Sales Tax – If sales tax was charged on an order from an individual, it has to be paid by BQB to the state and thus needs to be deducted to obtain the gross profit on the book
Printing Cost of Book(s) – This column shows the actual cost BQB had to pay to print the books in this order. These costs may differ depending on the amount of books that were ordered at one time from our printer.
Cost of Shipping – If your book(s) was sold to an individual, they paid for shipping to have BQB send them their books. This column deducts the cost of shipping from the gross profit on the book.
Profit – This is the net profit on the book order. Or in other words, the total amount received for the book order minus any taxes, printing costs, and shipping costs.
10% Reserve Against Returns – Book returns happen and per the BQB contract, we take 10% of the net profit of all book sales and hold a reserve up to $200 for book returns. There is no time limit on when a book seller or wholesaler can return books, so we could get hit for a return two or three years after the sale. When that happens, we first deduct the returns from this reserve before hitting any current profits. We receive a chargeback on the returned books from New Leaf, and if the books are in sellable condition, they are put back into inventory to be sold in the future. If they have been damaged, we try to sell them at reduced costs at book festivals, etc.
Profit After Reserve – This is the amount from which the royalty is figured.
Clients % – This amount is your percentage of the royalty based on your contract.
BQB % – The amount of royalty that BQB receives based on the contract.
% Paid to a BQB Management Member – If you have an additional column with a % paid to a BQB management person, that means that they are receiving 10% of BQB’s portion of the royalty for a certain amount of time as a bonus. This does not affect your royalty and is paid only out of the BQB portion
Check Issue Date – When your royalties (for your print and eBook(s) total $50 or more at the beginning of a month, a check is issued and the date and amount is recorded here. The amount that is recorded is the total amount that is being paid to you for all books and eBooks you have with BQB and recorded on the different sheets in your royalty statement.
For eBook Breakdowns
Date of Payment – This is the date that the actual payment is received by BQB. Some eBook distributors pay within 60 days, some pay within 90-120 days.
For Month of – This column will show the month in which your eBook(s) was sold, i.e. 10/1-10/31/2012.
Quantity Ordered – This is the number of eBooks purchased by that particular buyer or entity.
Name of Book – The title of the eBook covered by this line of the royalty breakdown.
Ordered by or Through – The eBook distributor through which your eBook(s) was purchased.
Books Returned/Refunded – eBooks are sometimes returned and refunded and this is the column where the number of eBooks that were returned and refunded from a particular distributor for a particular month will appear.
10% Reserve Against Returns – 10% of each net sale is held for returns and refunds. When the returns/refunds do happen, they are subtracted from this column, because that is the purpose for the reserve.
Profit After Reserve – This is the amount from which the royalty is figured.
Clients % – This amount is your percentage of the royalty based on your contract.
BQB % – The amount of royalty that BQB receives based on the contract.
% Paid to a BQB Management Member – If you have an additional column with a % paid to a BQB management person, that means that they are receiving 10% of BQB’s portion of the royalty for a certain amount of time as a bonus. This does not affect your royalty and is paid only out of the BQB portion
Check Issue Date – When your royalties (for your print and eBook(s) total $50 or more at the beginning of a month, a check is issued and the date and amount is recorded here. The amount that is recorded is the total amount that is being paid to you for all books and eBooks you have with BQB and recorded on the different sheets in your royalty statement.
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We held an author call in the beginning of July 2012 to review the royalty report line-by-line and help authors understand it. We recorded the call, so if you would like to listen to that information at your leisure, you can access the recording by calling 559-726-1099 and entering 1053788# then pressing 2 to access the recording for that call.