Royalties of a Mid-List NYT Best Seller PART 3

In Which We Return to the Columns of Sales Numbers and See What It's Like Out Here for Those of Us in the Middle 💵

It’s that time of year again where spring royalty statements have come out! Let’s dive into them and see how the needle’s moved for a full-time mid-list author. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 if you’d like to look at them for comparison purposes. Per usual, this comes with the caveat that this is just data from me, and that other mid-listers could have drastically different numbers. Here we go:

WHOBERT WHOVER, OWL DETECTIVE (2017, picture book)

• $10K Advance

• 42 copies sold this period; 41 hardcover + 1 e-book

• No royalties earned. We are now just under $2K from earning out, seven and a half years post-publication.

PORCUPINE CUPID (2020, picture book)

• $10K Advance

• 41 copies sold this period; 34 hardcover + 7 e-book

• No royalties earned, but I love the fact that over 40 people buy a Valentine’s Day book during a period that doesn’t include the holiday ❤️ I’m now about $5.2K away from earning out.

MERMICORN ISLAND Series (2021, four chapter books, joint accounting*)

*Joint accounting means all four books in this series were grouped together in terms of royalties, so that I wouldn’t earn royalties until all four books earned out

• $34K Advance (For all four books combined)

• 2,326 copies sold this period across all formats (Going into detail of paperback, hardcover, e-book, and fairs for all four books is tough with these ones, but typically most of these are paperback editions sold at book fairs)

• $359.35 royalties earned

JAY’S GAY AGENDA (2021, young adult novel)

• $40K Advance + $10K sales bonus (also treated as an advance)

• 2,053 copies sold this period; 54 hardcover + 736 paperback + 462 e-book + 801 audiobook

• $1,902.83 royalties earned

• Total copies sold were about 45% of what they were last period. This period includes holiday shopping, so I think this sales dip is emblematic of JGA being a backlist title that’s now almost four years out from publication.

OUT OF THE BLUE (2022, young adult novel)

• $40K Advance + $10K sales bonus (also treated as an advance)

• 2,241 copies sold this period; 128 hardcover + 460 paperback + 522 e-book + 1,131 audiobook

• $2,082.74 royalties earned

• As with JGA, OOTB sold less than half what it did last period.

NEVER FORGET ELEANOR (2023, picture book)

• $17,500 Advance

• 17 copies sold this period; 8 hardcover + 9 e-book

• No royalties earned. I’m still about $8,700 from earning out.

RILEY WEAVER NEEDS A DATE TO THE GAYBUTANTE BALL (2023, young adult novel)

• $50K Advance

• -1,393 copies sold this period; -1,393 hardcover + -133 paperback + 85 e-book + 48 audiobook

• No royalties earned. This one stings because we continue to go backwards. Last period we went from being $32.5K away from earning out to being $35K away. This period we’re at $37K away. All this to show that each individual author’s individual books have their own unique lives, and no matter how much we love them, there’s not a lot we can do to resuscitate those books that are dying.

THE SPELLS WE CAST (2023, young adult novel)

• $40K Advance

• 2,051 copies sold this period; 295 hardcover + 1,263 e-book + 493 audiobook

• No royalties earned. I’m still about $29.7K away from earning out.

THE MAGIC YOU MAKE (2024, young adult novel)

• $40K Advance

• 2,557 copies sold this period; 2,360 hardcover + 168 e-book + 29 audiobook

• No royalties earned. I’m still about $36.3K away from earning out.

FLOPPING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND (2024, young adult novel)

• $50K Advance

• 6,472 copies sold this period; 5,904 hardcover + 251 e-book + 299 audiobook + 18 CD (I’m picturing this in a CD holder on someone’s visor and it’s making me so happy!!)

• No royalties earned. I’m still about $31.5K away from earning out. I’ll be interested to see how returns look for this book next period seeing as how FLOPPING is a Christmas novel and I’m assuming a lot of bookstores clear out their holiday stock in the spring. But who knows, maybe they keep them for the next year’s holiday season.

TOTAL ROYALTIES EARNED THIS PERIOD: $4,344.92

That’s just about half what I earned last period, which all seems natural as those books that have earned out get older and older. Unless any of my novels gets blessed with a BookTok miracle, the best thing I (or any mid-list author in a similar position) can do is just go on and write the next book.

There you have it, folks! If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments or write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com.

Until next time!

-JJ

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The vents haven’t been coming in lately (which is understandable given the world!), but if you’d like to vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️

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Just a reminder to all our author-passengers, the Ventorship is looking for traditionally published writers to be featured with their most recent or upcoming book release for The Vent, our series where authors answer four written questions about their publishing journey to be shared with the whole boat. Email me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: THE VENT to let me know you’re interested. You can find examples of The Vent here, here, and here!