What I Find So Motivating About Royalties

Have you ever wondered why you hate your job? Well there's a lot of psychology and research behind it, but one of the major factors that's gone into both psychology and philosophy is the idea of being separated from the effect your work has. That feeling you get when you're just a cog in the machine, answering a call here, or checking an order form there, but you can't really see how your job affects anyone or anything so it all feels sort of like pointless make-work? That's what this feeling references.

At the same time, there's also the knowledge that you aren't getting the full value of your labor. Now this may stray into hammer-and-sickle territory for some readers, but the idea is pretty sound. Whether you're making pizzas, sitting at a security desk, or delivering truckloads of goods to stores, you know in your mind that your boss is paying you the absolute least amount they can for the labor you're providing. Which means the difference between the cost to do the job/produce the product added to what you've been paid, subtracted from what the client paid, is the total value your employer puts in their pocket. This means that you know, no matter how good a job you do, the only person who's making more money from that effort at the end of the day is your boss.

Ain't capitalism grand?

Being an author, though, hourly wage isn't something I've earned for many years now. And while I still get a per-word rate on a lot of my work, I find that the most personally motivating thing I can be offered is a cut of the profits generated by something I either created, or helped create.

While that sort of structure might not be full-on socialism, it's certainly edging a lot closer to a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship than any hourly job I've ever had. It still doesn't pay as well as I'd like, though, so if you want to help out consider becoming a Patreon patron to help keep a little wind in my sails it would be much appreciated!

Getting My Piece of The Pie

For those not familiar, a royalty is when the publisher splits earnings with the author to compensate them for their part of a book, article, or other piece of work they helped create. So if you went and bought a digital copy of my noir mystery cat novel Marked Territory, my cut of those earnings would be a few dollars. If you bought a physical copy I'd earn a few dollars more, because it's a higher price, and therefore my percentage comes out to a larger amount than the digital copy did.

My sensitivity editor wants to know why you haven't gotten your copy yet!

There are, of course, practical, business-oriented reasons that so many publishers focus on royalties instead of just buying books, short stories, articles, etc. straight from authors... primarily because it's so difficult to judge the market that you never know what will explode and what won't, so you hedge your bets by keeping costs as low as possible. However, the side effect of this is that when you're a writer you've basically signed onto a pirate crew; you get your share of the bounty, whatever it is. And if there's no action (meaning your book didn't make any sales), then your percentage of nothing is still nothing.

And that does something to my brain chemistry that addresses the two factors I mentioned in the introduction. Because when I write something, whether it's an article like 5 Things You Can Do To Be A Better Ambassador To Your Hobby, a novel like my recent sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, or even an RPG supplement like my most recent splat Gods of Sundara, I have no disconnect from it. From my fingers to the sales page, there's a direct line I can see when it comes to my work that lets me keep a clear image of how my effort impacts things. Not only that, but if something I wrote does well (generates thousands of reads, gets a few hundred sales, etc.), then I get a part of that action. This motivates me to actually share my work, get interviewed about it, boost the signal, run marketing campaigns (as best I can), and to make sure my work gets seen by people.

Do you know what I do when I just get a flat fee for a piece of work? Even if it's a piece of work I enjoyed, or that I think is really worth people's time? Absolutely nothing. I take my check, I cash it, and I immediately get to work on the next thing, because I don't have the time or the energy to spend bigging-up a signal that isn't going to pull me along in its wake. I've got bills to pay, and making more money for a client who isn't sharing any of those profits with me means that I've actively stopped treading water while diverting my energies to them instead.

I'd like everyone reading this to take a moment, and ask how'd they'd feel if their job actually gave them a portion of the day's take while they were on-shift helping make all that profit. What if cashiers received a portion of the profit generated based on how much they checked out? Or perhaps they were paid a bonus that went up based on how much product they cleared? What if waitstaff, instead of relying on tips, were given a portion of the earnings generated by their tables (meaning big tables suddenly become big bonuses)?

Think about what that kind of cooperation would do for morale, as well as earnings? Because if everyone got back a portion of what their work helped generate, I bet you'd see a lot of stuff start to change in a big damn hurry.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing! If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

If you'd like to help support my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page! Lastly, to keep up with my latest, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well!