I have currently been offered a book illustration job and the agent has asked about royalties . I would like royalties but how do I go a about this and what do I say to the agent?
A - First of all, the publisher should make it clear to you – and to your agent – whether this book is on a flat fee or a royalty basis. Most trade publishers offer royalties to authors and illustrators, while some educational publishers don’t. If your contract is on a royalty basis, this means that you get a % share of the profits from the book sales. While you are actually doing the work a non returnable advance on the royalties is paid to you, so that you have something to live on while you are creating the work. The payment of the advance is usually broken down into three stages, so if the advance was for £10,000 or $10,000 you would get one third on signature of the contract, one third on approval of finished roughs and one third on delivery and approval of final artwork. You would then receive royalty statements from the publisher every 6 months after the book is published, which will offset the amount the book has earned during that 6 month period from your advance. You would then start to get additional royalties when your original advance has been ‘earned out’. You may well know all this already, if not your agent should certainly be able to tell you more – it’s surprising that they haven’t already put you in the picture. It is usually better to get a royalty based contract if you can and if the publisher are willing – and they may not be in the final analysis, but your agent should be fighting to get that for you if they possibly can – I hope they are, as that is part of their job and one of the reasons why you pay them commission! Every contract is different and clauses can often be negotiated to get the best terms for you as the artist, again, speak to your agent about this specific contract.
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