Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, idw, john byrne, marvel, star trek

98 Cents? Don't Spend It All At Once

Published Sun, 29 Sep 2013 15:00:34 -0500

In an industry where comic creators aren't that happy discussing exactly what they get paid, John Byrne has been relatively forthright.

On Marvel:

Received a royalty check from Marvel yesterday. For $0.98!! I wonder what that cost them to process?

On an unnamed publisher (but you could probably make an educated guess):

This check is kind of the Cosmic Balance to one I received shortly after I moved into this house. A Company I Shall Not Name claimed to have "forgotten" to send me the royalty checks on a Property I Shall Not Name — for TEN YEARS!!

The check was for five figures, and the first was not a 1!

I actually called them to make sure the decimal was in the right place. Got apologies, and an assurance it would not happen again. Then didn't see another check from them for FIVE years — and again, five figures!

So ridiculous! Having to cough up those amounts in lump sums like that must have taken a helluva bite out of their annual budget. SO much smarter to just, you know, PAY ME ON TIME!!

On IDW

As I've mentioned before, I have waived my page rate and first publication royalties on all my books at IDW, to make it easier on their corporate wallets. I get only the royalties from the trade paperbacks and other reprints.

… and more recently…

Meanwhile, found out yesterday that IDW doesn't pay royalties on the STAR TREK stuff. Seems the licensing fee is so large they have virtually nothing left over. So here I find myself unexpectedly in the exact opposite position of what I knowingly agreed to with my creator owned stuff: there, no page rate, but royalties on the trades. On the TREK stuff, a page rate, but no royalties. Still hope the photonovel is a big seller, tho. I want to do more!!

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