The Best Time to Ask for Royalties in Your Writing Career
How to know when you’re ready (and when your client is too).
As you’re thinking about pricing your projects and/or you’re looking to make even more money on your work, you might think about royalties for your next project.
Countless hot shot (but perhaps very talented) writers boast how they can write 1 email that will make them thousands or millions and even more for their client - and all in 20 minutes or less… *eye roll*
Yes, royalties can help you rake in thousands of extra dollars over the course of your career, but you should only be asking for them in certain situations.
In this post, I’m not here to sugarcoat anything. Yeah royalties are cool - sometimes - but they're probably not appropriate for most of your projects. Can you use them to skyrocket your income? Sure. Should you bank on them to pay your bills? No.
Let’s cover some common writer royalty payment questions before we dig into the good stuff.
What Are Writer Royalties?
Royalties are payments made based on a percentage of sales or other monetary conversion. For writers, it’s a payment that’s (partially) based on the performance of your work.
While some may argue that it’s totally based on how good your writing is, there are other factors at play as well. More on that later.
For example: Say you write an ecommerce email and it generates $1M in sales. If you had a royalty agreement before the project began, you could earn a percentage on the sales that came from your email.
How Much Is the Standard Royalty?
Standard royalty rates for writers can vary - and they vary based on the type of writing you do. However, you may be able to ask for anything between 1-5% of the sales, profits or whatever the agreement is. Book authors may be able to snag a bit more, such as in the 10-25% range.
Whatever the rate, make sure your royalty agreement is clear and in writing!
While 1-5% doesn’t sound like a lot, it can become a lot if your client is going to blast that email to millions of people year after year. For example: $1M in sales could equate to $10,000 for you if you agreed to a 1% royalty.
However, not every client will be doing this or even willing to do this, so don’t start talking about royalties with every client. More on that next.
When You Have Enough Leverage to Ask for Royalty Payments
There are very specific situations where you should consider royalties, which we’ll cover now. I’m not saying you can never ask for royalties, but you need to be very selective when you do so.
If you’re careless, you could scare away a client. Or, you could prevent yourself from getting paid anything, let alone the rates you deserve.
Best Types of Projects for Writer Royalties
Depending on what type of writing you do, your work will vary based on how “close to the sale” it is.
For example: A direct response copywriting project is usually very close to the sale, usually in the form of an email, sales page or product description. There has to be some sort of direct link between the writing you wrote and a person making a conversion with it.
Projects dealing with high-level brand awareness, storytelling, pillar page web copy, editing and other specialities are not close to the sale. In other words, they are not the last step before someone converts. They are not the key determinant as to whether or not someone makes a conversion.
All forms of writing serve a purpose, but certain projects have significantly more influence than others when it comes to converting and/or generating revenue.
“Close to the Sale” Projects That May Support Royalties:
Direct response sales letter
Ecommerce campaigns (emails, digital ads)
Sales page copy
Sales webinar script
All of these projects above have a monetary conversion component, and they are often the last critical step someone experiences before they decide to buy.
Best Time to Ask for Royalties with New Clients
Some writers may make the mistake of agreeing to take royalties in lieu of getting paid for the project. While that may sound good to your client (they don’t have to pay unless it performs), you’re agreeing to get paid based on the actions and efforts of your client, not the work you actually did.
If it’s an email, what if they only send it to 1000 people? Would that be enough to pay for the project? What if they send it to 0 people? They have no obligation to send out your email at all.
What if the copy on a landing page you wrote is great, but there was some technical error during your client’s launch? Again, it’s not your fault, but you’re being penalized for it.
So, as you may have guessed by now, royalties in lieu of payment - especially with new clients - should probably be off the table.
Instead, here are some parameters to know when it’s okay to ask for royalties with a new client.
When the Royalty Discussion Is Appropriate
You’re being tasked with a direct response project.
You have an extensive track record of direct response success.
You can ask for project payment and royalties together.
You can “afford” to make $0 on your work (to gain experience and awesome samples).
You really don’t “need” this client to work with you.
Best Time to Ask for Royalties with Existing Clients
Say you’ve been working with one company for a while and they approach you to write something close to the sale. If you already have an hourly thing going, it may be hard to revise your contract. Not a total deal breaker, but you’ll have to justify why you want to change the agreement.
However, if you work on a project-by-project basis, you can revise the pricing at the start of every new project.
Now, let’s talk about some situations where you may be able to get your current client to agree to royalties.
When the Royalty Discussion Is Appropriate
You’re being tasked with a direct response project.
You have an extensive track record of direct response success - especially with this company.
You have access to past performance stats to support your request.
You can ask for project payment and royalties together.
You can “afford” to make $0 on your work (to gain experience and awesome samples).
Agree to Royalties with Caution and Clarity
At the end of the day, how you run your business is up to you. I hope this post gave you some insight and direction to help you make an informed decision about royalties on your writing projects.
Above all, make sure you and your client are completely clear about the royalty agreement. You also have to trust that the client will be truthful about sales and remember to pay you the correct rate.
So, even though the “write 1 email that generates thousands for you for years to come - and you can write it in 20 minutes” thing sounds great, it is often too good to be true.
Instead, I’d consider getting paid for the work you do and find new ways to keep getting work with your clients. Just a thought.
