Um, you just don’t do that and think you can’t get in trouble

Penguin Australia has a bright and shiny new idea: cut back royalties! Specifically, they plan to chop the royalty rate for backlist authors from 10% down to between 6 and 8 percent.

Penguin publisher Robert Sessions argues that all they are doing is getting the rate in line with the rest of the world. “If an author goes to a publisher in New York or London, that’s what they’re going to be offered as a standard rate and all the literary agents in both those countries accept that and have done for many years.”

Interestingly, a few years ago Sessions was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald about the future of print-on-demand, and had this to say: “Penguin is known for its strong and enduring backlist, and it has been frustrating not being able to supply people with the backlist books they want because sales do not justify an economic print run.”

Hence, the POD possibilities. “[POD] will have the effect, potentially, of keeping books in print indefinitely. That would be good for authors, good for readers, good for publishers and booksellers,” says Sessions.

And so will rolling back the royalty rate?

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