A royal mess

I’ve taken my publisher to Small Claims Court. It seems drastic, but increasingly, the only means left to pursue the royalties that were due to me. When I signed my contract eight years ago, excited that my debut novel was finally going to become a book, I had no idea that this could happen: that legal documents can be ignored, that publishers who wax enthusiastic about your writing can also offer such blatant disregard to paying royalties on time.

And yet, eight years on, I feel naïve for even thinking that publishers can be trusted.

This doesn’t, of course, apply to all publishers. But your first published book, the one you have poured your heart and soul into, is a momentous one for any writer, and your experience of it leaves a lasting impact on your future outlook as an author.

In my case, the second half of my (low, four-figure) advance for my debut was paid six months late, after significant chasing. None of my royalties have ever been paid on time. And I have in my inbox a single email chain running for 18 months, wherein the managing director of my publishing house promises to pay my royalties "next week" and then conveniently forgets, until he’s reminded again.

It’s a complete joke. We aren’t talking about huge sums of money here: a couple hundred pounds. But this is the reality facing far too many authors who work with certain independent presses. Low amounts of income (far below the living wage, given the time you’ve put into writing and promoting your book), often so low that they seem hardly worth chasing. Having to chase so hard for such small amounts of money is nothing short of demoralising. Yet compounded over enough authors, those unpaid royalties still sit in the bank accounts of publishers.

While there are many excellent independent presses who champion new and exciting writers, there are also publishers who think it’s fine not to pay authors their royalties on time. If these companies can afford wages to their in-house staff, then surely, they can afford to pay their author royalties on time (which are already delayed six months due to how book accounting works).

But through casual conversations, in Facebook forums and in social media DMs, I’ve heard from far too many authors who experience late payments. I can easily count these authors on more than two hands: some publishers have only been a few weeks late in payments; my publisher in particular seems to have a track record of only paying authors after many months of persistent chasing. In all instances I know of, these are independent publishers who understandably, face more financial challenges than the Big Five. And yet, the creative work of authors forms the very products which publishers aim to profit from. Why is our financial remuneration treated like an after-thought?

You might be wondering: what about your agent? Understandably enough, few agents can be bothered to doggedly chase for 10% of a couple hundred pounds. But many agents also don’t realise how unscrupulous certain publishers can be, because poor publisher behaviour rarely gets aired in public. Instead, we get announcement after shiny announcement about new acquisitions by publishers in the trade press, but little insight into how those companies are actually behaving behind the scenes.

The creative work of authors forms the very products which publishers aim to profit from. Why is our financial remuneration treated like an after-thought?

After my first novel, I switched agents, and my second novel landed with one of the Big Five publishers. So while I have managed to escape an untrustworthy publisher relationship, more authors continue to walk blindly into the same trap, unaware that the terms of their book deal will be ignored. I know several debut authors who have had their mental health drained by having to chase for unpaid royalties: the anger, the frustration and the sense of being taken for a ride. This can impact our future attitudes, our self-belief and, ultimately, our trajectory as authors. It also damages our trust in publishers, and ultimately affects the overall ecology of the publishing industry, exhausting the energy of multiple authors, agents, even Society of Authors’ staff who have to repeatedly deal with these breaches of contract. It’s sad to think this could have been preventable if we felt we could discuss bad publisher behaviour more openly in the industry.

In his email response to my Small Claims Court action, the m.d. of this particular publisher reminded me that they had published my first novel "when other publishers wouldn’t agree to publish it".’This is actually incorrect, as I had other offers, but the fact this is even being used as an argument highlights a very flawed attitude that seems to haunt the publishing landscape: that we as authors should be grateful someone is choosing to publish our book. That faced with the prospect of no book deal, or a small book deal with a publisher who reluctantly pays out earned royalties, authors should just be happy with the latter.  

True, it is every writer’s dream to be published. But that dream too often gets exploited. And who gets to live this dream is all too often determined by pre-existing financial inequalities. With actual author earnings so low, it is often financial reserves, family money or an income-earning partner which determine whether writing can be a vocation that doesn’t have to earn an income vs. a profession that needs to pay our bills.

These inequalities also determine who is able to financially withstand unpaid royalties and others for whom the economic precariousness of the author life, coupled with the insulting behaviour from publishers, simply isn’t worth it.

Shortly after filing my Small Claims Court action, I learned that my publisher had finally paid my outstanding royalties, some of which were 20 months overdue. Are authors allowed to pay our rent 20 months late? No. Then why should publishers get away with such delayed payment? It is a complete insult to the value of an author’s work.  

So authors, ask yourself: are your royalties and advances being paid on time? Are the commercial terms of your book deal being honoured? Is your work as an author being respected? Unscrupulous publisher behaviour needs to be called out and held accountable. Otherwise, we all suffer.