PW: Evolving Standard Deal for eBook Originals - No Advance, 50/50 Split of Net Proceeds

This is exactly how my firm, New Street Communications, is structuring things. Publishers Weekly: "Most e-book original publishers interviewed by PW do not offer advances, explaining that the rules in the e-books world are different from traditional print publishing. Waxman said that while he won't rule out offering an advance to the right author, currently Diversion is not giving advances. Angela James, executive editor of Harlequin's e-book original imprint, Carina Books, said something similar: 'Carina Press does not offer advances, because the digital-first business model works differently.' The new business model is different largely because it works more like a partnership: the author supplies the text, the publisher pays for production, and they split the return down the middle (after the publisher recoups production costs). That's exactly how Diversion works. 'We put up money for the production costs and we recoup those costs as first revenues. That seems to be the model that makes sense in the nascent business at this time,' said Waxman. Open Road, the most visible publisher of e-book originals, also works on a 50/50 profit share, offering no advances. James said that in exchange for sacrificing the advance, Carina authors get 'increased marketing support, higher digital royalties on cover price, and more frequent royalty payments.'"

Copyright, Ebooks and the Unpredictable Future

Insightful essay from Emily Williams in Digital Book World: "Ebook publishers have unsurprisingly been in the vanguard of offering new terms to authors, often as a way of competing against the big established print houses. RosettaBooks, under agent Arthur Klebanoff, and the new Diversion Books, established by agent Scott Waxman, both offer 3-5 year contracts based on the proven principle that the future is hard to predict and flexibility for authors is key. Richard Nash, the former publisher of print indie Soft Skull who is now setting up Cursor, a new publisher proposing an innovative crowd-sourced digital+print model, has been more vocal about overturning the copyright status quo. In a manifesto on his blog Nash laid out his own version of the change principle: 'The publishing industry is in a state of turmoil. New sales channels are arising, new formats, new terms of sale. Authors deserve the chance to renegotiate as the industry evolves.' Nash thus offers Cursor authors 3-year renewable contracts, in return for 'a fairly broad basket of rights in the license…in audio, in English-language outside the US, in magazine republication, in translation.'"