Publication week, and the author wants boxes
The author's free copies were sent the week bound copies arrived. Now they have a launch event at their local bookshop, two festival appearances and a list of friends who want signed copies. They email the editor asking for fifty more at the author discount, delivered to their home, and a few sent straight to relatives.
The editor forwards it to the office. The office asks the distributor for an author order, or packs it from the boxes in the corner. An invoice is supposed to follow. Sometimes it does, sometimes the cost is meant to be taken from royalties, and sometimes nobody is sure which the author agreed to.
Why author orders fall between the gaps
Author orders are a small, irregular job with several owners: editorial talks to the author, the office or distributor ships, finance invoices or adjusts royalties. None of them sees the whole thing.
- Free copy entitlements are in the contract and vary by author and format.
- Discount terms for extra copies vary too, and some authors can resell at events, others cannot.
- Orders arrive in email to whoever the author normally writes to.
- Some copies ship from the office, some from the distributor.
- Charging against royalties needs finance to remember at statement time.
Older contracts add to the confusion. Terms for free copies and discounts changed over the years, agented and unagented contracts differ, and the office often applies whatever the last person did, not what the contract says. Nobody means to be inconsistent; the terms just are not in front of them.
The small costs that add up
| Slip | Effect |
|---|---|
| Free copies sent twice | Stock given away beyond the contract |
| Invoice not raised | Discounted copies are never paid for |
| Royalty deduction forgotten | Payment for the order is lost |
| Wrong discount applied | An awkward correction with an author you want to keep |
| Stock taken from the office pile unrecorded | Stock figures and reality drift apart |
None of these is large alone. Across a list, and across years, they add up, and the awkward conversations with authors about old invoices cost goodwill as well.
How we set up author orders
- An author order form, linked to the author's titles, that shows their remaining free copies and their discount on extra copies, taken from your contract records.
- A choice of payment: pay now by card through Stripe or Shopify, pay on invoice, or deduct from royalties if their contract and your policy allow.
- Orders passed to the distributor as an author order, or to the office as a pick list, depending on where stock sits.
- An invoice raised in Xero or QuickBooks where payment is due, with the order reference.
- Royalty deductions logged against the author so they appear on the next statement automatically.
- A history per author, so anyone in the office can answer 'what have I had this year?'
The terms themselves come from your contracts and house policy. The form only applies them consistently and records what happened.
After: authors order, the office ships
The author logs in, sees they have used their free copies, orders fifty more at their discount and pays by card. Five go to relatives' addresses. The distributor receives the order the same day. The editor is copied for information but does nothing. At statement time, nothing needs remembering because the order was paid at the time.
For an author who prefers the cost taken from royalties, the deduction is logged the moment the order is made and appears on the next statement with the order date. When the author asks, anyone in the office can see every order and what it cost.
Do author orders cause friction on your list?
- Author orders reach you through the editor's inbox.
- You are not sure how many free copies each author has received.
- Invoices for author purchases are sometimes never sent.
- Royalty deductions for author orders are added by hand, if remembered.
- Copies are taken from the office stock without being recorded.