Latest batch of S&S royalty statements weighs in at 15 pounds (less half a pound for agent Richard Curtis's nose) (Photo by Andy Ross)

Twice every year authors and agents gird their loins in anticipation of the arrival of Simon & Schuster’s royalty statements. This is no fanciful metaphor: some literally gird their loins, for the weight of the package has been known to induce hernias in even the stoutest of mail room clerks.

The welter of detail elaborated in tiny print is numbing. The bloated statements are badly organized and repetitious and, in this age of environmental concern, appallingly wasteful. The practice has been going on for approximately two decades, but after our office manager suggested we lease a dedicated storage facility for them at $400 a month I decided the time had come to speak out.

Having opened the latest parcel the approximate bulk and weight of a giant schnauzer, I am inviting my agent and author colleagues to join me in an appeal to Simon & Schuster to review its accounting procedures, study the clear and economical statements issued by many other publishers, and reform its profligate ways. I would be happy to provide examples that render in one or two pages what Simon & Schuster does in a dozen or more.

Here are the components of a typical statement for one book:

• Payee Summary - A cumulative synopsis of royalty and rights revenues less advances and other deductions, and the net amount (if any) payable for this royalty period. This summary covers all editions. 
• Title Summary – Prior balance, current activity, and cumulative balance for all editions of the title. This is a detailed reiteration of the Payee Summary.
  
• Royalty Earnings per edition. This is a detailed breakdown of prior, current and cumulative earnings and returns for each edition of the book. One collection of statements covers the hardcover, another the trade paperback, another the mass market edition. If the first edition of the hardcover was priced, say, at $25.99, the second $26.99, the third $29.99, each printing’s activity is detailed and totaled. 
• Royalty Deductions - Prior and current deductions are detailed. 
• Title Balance - thumbnail summary of prior, current and cumulative statement balance with net royalty if any due to the author.

For each format of the same book there is a new set of statements. For a typical novel published in hardcover, paperback and electronic formats the royalty statement totaled 14 pages. For one author of a popular series the royalty package totaled more than 500 pages – a ream of paper – and weighed in at five pounds. And that’s just for one author. And by the way, we have to make a copy of this package to send to every client, so double those numbers.

Let me make it clear that I have no objection to receiving checks that may accompany the statements. But I would feel a great deal better depositing them if I knew that an acre of trees had not died just so that I could report to clients that their books had earned $0.00 for the twelfth year in a row.

For years I was a strident campaigner for clarity in royalty statements, and I’m happy to say that as a result of pressure from author and agent organizations publishers at last began providing such vital statistics as returns and reserves against returns.  So it is ironic that I am complaining about excessive data. But the fact is that too much of it can obscure rather than illuminate a book’s performance.

TMI, Simon & Schuster! Time to go green.

Richard Curtis