Most financial planners will tell you that building residual income is a key way to establish financial security. Residual income is income that keeps coming after you’ve done the work. 

Writers have this option in royalty payments. Royalties are payments that continue to come in as long as one’s book is in print. When it comes to royalties, the writer does the work once and gets paid for it as long as the book remains in print. 

Royalties rarely come from the sales of articles, although that is changing now that writing is published online. Royalties usually come from the sale of books. And with the rise of e-books, an author’s opportunity to earn royalties has greatly increased.

But not only has the opportunity to earn royalties greatly increased, the royalties themselves have greatly increased. The royalty on a print book varies from 8% to 12%. The royalty on an e-book varies from 35% to 70%. This e-book competition poses a challenge to traditional publishers who are struggling to keep up with the marketplace.

For an interesting article on the e-publishing royalty issue, you may want to read “Publishers Must Tackle Digital Author Royalties”. _________________________________

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