ONE ROYALTY PERIOD, LINE BY LINE
Every line is plausible. Three of them are unverifiable.
This is a normal statement for a mid-list novel in its second year. Nothing here is unusual and nothing here is checkable by the person receiving it.
| Line | Figure | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Copies shipped | 5,180 | From the publisher's system. The author has no independent view of this and never has. |
| Returns | -980 | One line, no period, no source shipment. A return counted in two consecutive periods looks identical to two returns. |
| Review and press copies | not shown | Distributed at the publisher's discretion. They are not sales and do not earn royalties, and their number never appears. |
| Net copies sold | 4,200 | The number the whole statement rests on, arrived at by arithmetic the author cannot repeat. |
| Retailer discount | not shown | Sets net receipts, and therefore sets the royalty. It is a commercial term between publisher and retailer. |
| Royalty at 10% | Rp 12.6 jt | Correct arithmetic on figures that cannot be checked. This is what arrives, twice a year. |
An author asking about any of this is asking their publisher to prove they are honest, which is why most of them do not ask.
If you publish, or are published.
The useful thing is concrete: what your statement shows and what you wish it showed.
nadia.puspita@cetakterbaca.online
Bandung, Jawa Barat