Three critical steps to ensure trustworthy royalty statements

 

Ahead of a free webinar for IPG members, MetaComet Systems President David Marlin discusses how to eliminate the risks of inaccurate royalty statements.

 Do you trust your royalty statements? It is an important question for any publisher seeking financial stability and happy authors. Confidence in your royalties is critical to accurate forecasting, and to your peace of mind.

Unfortunately, accurate royalty management isn’t always straightforward—especially for small to medium sized publishers. Calculating, collating and checking royalty records can be a chore, and it can consume hours that would be much better spent on producing great books. Except for very small publishers, royalty calculations can soon become complex, especially when multiple sales sources and numerous royalty rules are factored in. This creates a real risk of errors leading to either over-payment, which drains cash from your business; or under-payment, which frustrates authors. Correcting any mistakes takes up even more time, and the stress of uncertainty is always there if you don’t have the proper royalty management systems in place.

Fortunately, there are 3 steps you can take while managing royalties to ensure accuracy and gain peace of mind. This is the topic of our free webinar for IPG members at 2pm on Tuesday 31 March.

In my 20 years of helping publishers automate their royalties, I have heard a plethora of adjectives to describe the process: “A headache,” “a nightmare,” “dreadful.” Not once have I heard anyone describe it as simple and pleasant, or a fun activity for your Sunday afternoon.

When I drill down further, the problems usually boil down to a lack of trust in the process.  As a publisher, you can’t afford that. In many ways, royalties are the heart of your business: without good content, you can’t be a good publisher. And without happy authors, you can’t get good content. Royalties are the key to maintaining relationships with your authors.

A friend, longtime publisher, and industry expert once told me that authors are primarily interested in two things above all else: recognition and money. The royalty statement that you send to your authors gives them both. And if they don’t trust it, well, we have all heard the stories.

Uncertainty in your royalty management causes stress. Deep down, you know that it places risk to both your author relations (and the source of your content), and your financial wellbeing.

The road to royalty peace of mind is simple auditability. Are all of your sales being included in your royalty calculations? Are those sales being allocated to the proper titles and authors? Are the royalty calculations correct? And finally, does the statement sum up properly?

But how do you do this? Please join me on 31 March to find out. I will use our royalty tracking software to demonstrate what it takes to achieve peace of mind.

MetaComet Systems’ exclusive free webinar, ‘3 Critical Steps to Ensuring You Can Trust Your Royalty Statements,’ takes place from 2pm to 3pm on Tuesday 31 March. You can register for it here.

For more about MetaComet Systems and their royalty management software Royalty Tracker, visit their website