Electronic Publishing - Authors' Rights, Royalties, and Licensing

Authors' Rights

Under a standard Cambridge Agreement, Cambridge normally has the exclusive right to publish both print and electronic editions of a work and to license its publication by others.

Royalties

eBook editions published by Cambridge generate royalties for the author in the usual way. In establishing royalty terms, we have taken account of a number of issues: the potential market for electronic editions; the level of discounts required by distributors/intermediaries; the impact on print sales - none of which are yet clear to the publishing industry.

We also need to take account of the overheads involved in electronic publication, including the creation of appropriate digital files, obtaining third-party rights and permissions, the development of an appropriate content management system, and the review and establishment of new distribution channels.

Authors will receive a royalty on the Syndicate's receipts from sales of eBooks in the same way as on sales of the printed edition, with royalties due being labelled and included in the authors' royalty accounts. Our standard royalty rate is 15% for electronic editions, including electronic copies sold direct or via aggregator or subscription services.