How Royalties Work at AuthorShelf

You keep 100% of your book royalties. AuthorShelf does not take a percentage of your retail sales. Our revenue comes from the publishing packages and add-on services you purchase.

When royalties start

Tracking begins after your title reaches Title Live in Phase 6 of your project workflow. Until then, focus on completing production and distribution setup.

How amounts are calculated

For Title / ISBN sales exports (reports listing units sold without a separate royalty column), gross and net match:

Gross Royalties = Net to You = Print Info compensation per book × units sold

Find compensation per market in Projects or Published Titles → View Details → Print Info. Distributor reports (KDP, Ingram with royalty columns) may show separate gross and net when print premiums apply.

Quarterly reporting

Royalties are calculated and reported each quarter (every three months). In your portal:

• Royalties tab — Browse by title and view detailed earnings.
• Reports tab — See per-project royalty totals, units sold, and activity summary.
• Published Titles → View Details — Title-level earnings for live books.

Getting paid

Set how you want to receive payouts in Account → Edit Profile under Royalty Payout (PayPal, check by mail, or ACH/direct deposit). Keep tax information current under Account → Tax Info.

Payments follow the quarterly schedule for the period covered by each report. If you have questions about a specific line item, open the title in Royalties or message your team.

Note: Milestone payments for publishing packages are managed separately under Account → Payments — not the same as book royalty payouts.