MSI Press Blog

  Authors frequently confuse LIST and NET and, in this way, end up with contracts that pay lower royalties when they believe that they are getting a good deal. Often, they cannot negotiate in ways that benefit themselves because they do not understand this difference and its significance. Let's break this down. List refers to the retail price of the book. Payment on list means a percentage of the retail price of the book. If royalties are 8% of list (5-8% is typical), then on a $10 book, royalties would be 80 cents; if they are 10%, royalties are $1, on every book sold. Easy to calculate, easy to predict income, and always standardized, no surprises or overestimations. Net refers to what is leftover after expenses. Gross revenue gets adjusted by a number of expenses: printing costs, printer set-up fees, shipping costs, handling fees, distributor percentage of sales (typically, 40%-55% per book), distributors' initial and continuing catalogue listing costs (without which online ...

  When a $3.34 Deposit Means More Than It Looks Most authors have received a royalty statement that made them laugh — not because it was large, but because it was tiny. A few dollars. A few cents. A number so small it feels almost absurd. But those tiny deposits are messages in a bottle. They say: Someone found your book. Someone cared enough to buy it. Someone spent time with your words. In an industry obsessed with launches, lists, and metrics, it’s easy to forget that books live slow, wandering lives. They travel through time. They find readers long after we’ve stopped tracking them. And sometimes they send back a little signal, a quiet acknowledgment that the work still matters to someone. A $3.34 royalty isn’t a paycheck. It’s a whisper: I reached someone. And for many authors, that whisper is worth more than the number on the statement.T hese Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors ...

  Why Humans Love the Personal Tidbits We like to pretend we’re rational creatures, drawn to books for their ideas and arguments. But the truth is simpler and more human: we’re fascinated by the small, seemingly trivial details of other people’s lives. What kind of tea does the author drink? What inspired the title? Why did they choose that anecdote? What were they thinking when they wrote that chapter? These details don’t change the content, but they change the connection. They make the author feel real, accessible, dimensional. They turn a book from an object into a relationship. This is why readers remember personal stories. It’s why they bring up your early book when they meet you. It’s why they ask questions that have nothing to do with your professional expertise. They’re not being silly — they’re being human. And for authors, those small details are often the bridge that turns a reader into a follower, and a follower into a community. T hese Tuesday talks reflect real discus...