New Royalty Tracker® Feature Automates the Calculation and Payment of Agents’ Fees

Simplifies Information Sharing, Eases Publisher/Agent Communications

For many book publishers, calculating and paying literary agents’ fees is an additional task tacked on to an already time-consuming royalty management process. Delivering the specific and customized royalty information that agents need adds further complications and stress to the process. 

With the new Royalty Tracker® agents feature, publishers can process agents’ fees, as well as author and licensor royalties, with the click of a button, and instantly publish agents’ statements to the online Royalty Portal.

Agents can easily see how their splits were calculated, review royalty summaries by title, and find more detailed information whenever they need it. 

“This feature will transform how our customers work with literary agents,” said David Marlin, President & Co-Founder of MetaComet Systems. “Instead of spending hours or days manually calculating splits and fielding phone calls, they can process everything in minutes and give agents instant access to exactly what they need.” 

Email [email protected] to switch on the agents feature for your company, or contact [email protected] to learn more about how Royalty Tracker® can save you time, reduce errors, and eliminate stress. 

Hassle-Free Agent Fees

Happy Agents, Happy Publishers

Contact us to learn how Royalty Tracker can calculate and communicate agents’ fees with the click of a button.

About Literary Agents’ Fees

How do literary agent fees work?

• Literary agents’ fees are a percentage of an author’s income derived from a work that the agent has sold on behalf of that author.
• When an author hires a literary agent to represent them, the two parties agree on the agent’s commission rate, and sign a contract.
• The rate may vary by region or format: for example, the agent may receive 15% of domestic royalties and 20% of foreign royalties.
• The agent pitches the manuscript to publishers or other buyers, negotiates royalties and other contract terms, and otherwise acts on behalf of the author in business agreements with any licensees.
• When the publisher pays out the advance and any royalties, they often send the entire payment to the agent, who then calculates their fees based on their agreement with the author, and pays the remaining royalties to the author.
• But sometimes the publisher calculates the literary agent’s fees and pays the agent and the author separately. This is when the Royalty Tracker agents feature becomes invaluable.

Why do some publishers calculate and pay out literary agents’ fees, instead of letting the agents and authors figure out the split?

When publishers have the ability to provide this service, it saves a great deal of time and effort on the agents’ side, thereby helping the publishers maintain great relationships with top agents and authors. In some instances, it may be contractually obligated.

What tools can publishers use to manage literary agents’ fees?

The new “agents feature” in the MetaComet® Royalty Tracker software automatically calculates and reports on agent’s fees based on the contract terms entered by the publisher. The publisher simply enters sales reports and clicks a single button to calculate author and agent payments in an instant. The publisher can also post statements and reports to an online portal so agents and authors can retrieve the calculation and payment information immediately, at any time of day or night.

To see how Royalty Tracker can save you time and eliminate the hassle in this sometimes stressful process, contact us for a free, no-pressure demo today.