THE CAREER NOVELIST
in some sectors but that drawback, it is thought, will be more than
offset by an overall improvement in our joint economic outlook.
What, though, is the outlook for authors? Lower royalty rates on
Canadian sales are a publishing institution. When I challenge them,
some U.S. publishers are still incredulous. How dare I question
Canadian royalties? They have been that way for... well, forever.
Will NAFTA improve this situation? Sorry to say, probably not. An
informal survey shows that few in our industry expect any change in
royalties on Canadian sales. Canadian authors are angry about that,
but U.S. authors and agents accept the status quo and publishers
flatly declare that change is impossible.
Here are the facts: duties on U.S. book exports to Canada are already
gone. Furthermore, Canadian cover prices are higher than those in the
U.S. Despite that, authors' royalties on Canadian sales are significant-
ly lower. What is worse, there is no uniform standard. Some contracts
stipulate two-thirds of the U.S. royalty rate; others only 5 percent of the
cover price. Still other publishers pay authors a simple 5 percent
(maybe 6 percent) of the publisher's net Canadian receipts, which, after
deducting a 44 percent trade discount and commissions to indepen-
dent Canadian sales reps, can mean very small sums indeed.
What's going on here? And is this issue really worth fussing
about? Sure, Canadian authors have a right to be sore, but for the
rest of us how much money are we actually talking about?
It is impossible to know exactly how much more authors would
get if royalty rates between the U.S. and Canada were equalized.
Nevertheless, Canada is a huge export market for U.S. books. In
1992, U.S. publishers shipped $702,174,000 worth of books to
Canada, more than the total shipped to their next eleven largest for-
eign markets combined. Even small royalty increases would obvi-
ously still buy authors quite a few extra pencils.
Take a look at individual authors and books, and the potential
payoff becomes even more dramatic. Canadian sales can be any-
where from 5 to 15 percent of a given book's volume. I have seen
that figure go as high as 25 percent. The ratio tends to be especial-
ly high for Canadian authors who, of course, publicize, promote,
and find a large following in their home country.