The author fee is the allowance, which a free author gets paid for the production of texts. It is according to a form of the fee, which can be limited on an occupational group. The today's practice of the payment of fees is based thereby on the requirement of the authors of a text opposite the user of the same, which results from copyright.

History

The earliest forms of the author fees as well as the payments of fees for other services within the range of the text production and - treatment (editorship, Lektorat etc.) leave themselves in 15. Century retrace. In 16. Century was it usual practice, the author fees in the form of dedications, the Dedikationen, to call in opposite potential sponsors. These were not asked as a rule in the apron and received after the pressure of the work a portion of the pressures with the desire of the payment under reference to the dedications.

Starting from that 17. Century firm fees, which were called overall fees and computed on the basis of the number of the sides and the edition, were established. These early author fees were paid however very frequently in the form of exchange goods, for example by the fact that the author got other printing elements, food or other things as payment. In addition that many publishers and also authors rejected it, for mental products (philosophy, lyric poetry, poetry) money came to pay and/or assume. All fees were negotiation thing and above all dependent on the admittingness authors, in addition the non-uniform regulation of authority represented as well as handling pirated editions a further problem. Only with the introduction of copyright as well as the education of different interest agencies like that 1825 created association of trade of the German booksellers in Leipzig (today association of trade of the German book trade) this practice could be standardized.

Today's fee practice in Germany

The payment of fees for authors is regulated in Germany today after the author treaty right "§ 32 UrhG in the version from March 2002, whereby the final version is up-to-date still in the discussion and both is demanded on the part of the interest representatives of the authors and on the part of the publishing houses rework. An agreement between the federation of German writers and a set of publishing houses within the range of the Belletristik plans thereby essentially five points for the obligatory fee regulation:

1. A participation in the sold Hardcoverausgaben at a value of eight to ten per cent of the net retail price as well as additionally a graduated fee with special sales impacts.
2. A graduated participation with the sales dependent on expenditures for paperback on the sales figure: five per cent with a sold edition per cent with up to 100,000 and eight per cent with over 100.000 copies, sieved by up to 20.000 copies, 6 per cent with up to 40,000. In addition comes a participation from four to six per cent with an extra charge, whose price must be at least one third under the price of the expenditure for original.
3. During the utilization of Nebenrechten like the use in book-strange media or during the conversion to film scripts the author receives 50 to 60% of the royalties.
4. Under normal conditions the author receives a Voschuss by the publishing house.
5. When desired the publishing house transfers the author the rights to use to the publishing house.

Beside this Vereinbahrungen however also further different models of the remuneration exist with scientific works, special books, councellors and other book and medium forms or also in the case of translations. With licenses from the foreign country in principle no graduated fee is paid to separate a warranty fee.

Literature

Erhard contactor among other things (Hrsg.): The book market book. The literature enterprise in fundamental ideas. Reinbek with Hamburg: Rowohlt paperback publishing house, 2005. ISBN 3-499-55672-3.

Articles in category "Author fee"

We found here 1 articles.

Related Websites

We found here 3 related websites.

• The Scientist : Author fee spikes at PLoS
  Author fee spikes at PLoS. Open access publisher increases publication charge by up to $1000. [Published 19th June 2006 01:25 PM GMT] ...


• The Scientist : Author fee spikes at PLoS
  Author fee spikes at PLoS. Open access publisher increases publication charge by up to $1000. [Published 19th June 2006 01:25 PM GMT] ...


• What to Pay a Writer
  Fees charged by professional writers vary according to the work involved. ... based on the publishing and writing experiences of the author/co-author/ghost. ...