Author Royalty Calculator

Enter the list price, royalty rate, copies sold and return rate to get the royalty.

How to use

  1. Enter your values in the fields above.
  2. Press Calculate to see your result instantly.
  3. Use the Share button to copy a link to your result.

About this calculator

Publishing royalty statements are calculated net of returns: bookstores and distributors can send unsold copies back to the publisher, so the author is only paid on copies that actually stayed sold. The math is list price × royalty rate × copies sold × (1 − return rate), mirroring how real royalty runs are reconciled twice a year.

Authors, literary agents, and small presses use this kind of estimate to sanity-check an advance against likely earnings, or to forecast a royalty statement before it arrives, since standard trade contracts typically pay 7-15% of list price on hardcovers and less on paperback and digital editions.

Was this helpful?

Comments (0)

  • Be the first to comment.

Popular calculators

All Calculators