Ashley MacKenzie: Six percent of total income, or of total net profit? Is it an e-book only offer? The lack of details makes this difficult to answer.

Michael Mammay: That’s a ridiculously low amount if you wrote the book. If you’re a short story in an anthology, that’s much more reasonable. E book only rates range from 25% of receipts (big-5) to 50% (some small presses) to 70% (Self-pubbed on Amazon with a price of $1.99 or higher)

Margaret Owen: Yeah, I agree, and the way it’s phrased as “total income gained” is also a red flag to me. That seems to leave room for non-standard parts of the calculation — e.g. refusing to pay royalties until the book’s sales pay for its marketing budget. Royalties should be presented as a percentage of sales, end of story.

Jim O'Donnell: Crazy. Amazon gives 70 or 75% of digital sales and the lowest I’ve seen from publishers on digital sales is 25%, and I want to emphasize that is the low end. This questioner dude (ambiguously-gendered-dude) needs to come up with a creative way to say no (dude is a writer, they should be able to come up with something witty) then report the publisher to Predators and Editors.

Elle Jauffret: 1) “Total income” is too vague to answer that question. Royalties should be calculated on gross/net revenues, price per unit, or fixed amount (there can be variations including minimum sale amount, etc…).
2) Is the writer the book’s originator/creator or the book’s ghost writer?
3) Was an advance given?
4) Best way to know is to check the standard contracts from recognized publishers (when/if available) and/or to talk to an attorney.

Sheena Boekweg: Scaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam. Run away.