Running Royalties

The Process

Once all your data is in PubGizmo, you can run royalties. "Run" is a multi-step process.

1. Complete importing and entering all sales records for the royalty period.
2. Ensure all relevant contracts are flagged active.
3. Flag which statements to pay out; any not paid out will have their amounts carried forward.
4. Compose (or edit) your stock messages, one for contract holders, and one for literary agents.
5. Proof your statements, either in PubGizmo, or by generating a PDF.
6. Generate email messages with the statement attached.
7. Personalize those messages as you like, and send them.
8. Generate payment records, to lock-in the amounts for the next period.
9. Generate a spreadsheet that summarizes your royalties.

Accessing the Royalties Menu

Many of the steps below are activated via a menu available at the upper-right in Royalties list view. The button to show this menu appears only if the previous royalty period is selected, that is, the period that last ended.

During 2024, select 2023 to show the menu

For example, if your press uses calendar royalty years, the menu is accessible during 2024 only if 2023 (the period that last ended) is selected. This prevents bulk actions from being triggered in the wrong year. Individual royalty statements can still be generated and/or sent at any time, for any year for which you have sales data.

Click the crown button to show the menu

Step-by-step

Complete Input of Sales Data

Ensure all sales during the royalty period have been input. This means importing all your sales sheets, as well as inputting manually sales not covered by import.

Important: Any sales input after the royalty run is complete will never be counted, even in the next period, since PubGizmo uses the date to isolate sales for that period.

Ensure All Active Contract/Statements are Flagged to Calculate

PubGizmo allows you flag active contracts, to determine if they get computed and included in your royalty run. Unlike flagging statements to pay out for this period (see below), the the status of the Calc Royalty flag persists through all royalty runs, i.e., contracts remain active or dormant/dead until you change them. You can set this flag in any of three locations:

1. on the Contract itself, at the upper-right,
2. on Royalty form view,
3. in Royalty list view.

Hint: you can get a list of statements by their compute flag by entering either "calc" or "nocalc" in the search box below the Royalties button on the Home screen, or at the top of the Royalties window.

Flag Statements to Pay Out

Statements default to not being paid out. You'll notice that initially, all statements are carrying over the earned amount to the next period. You can flag these either manually or automatically.

Flag Automatically

PubGizmo can auto-flag for payout any active contract where the amount owing to the author (for all contracts) exceeds a threshold, e.g., pay out only if the author is owed $25 or more, otherwise leave it unflagged, for the amount to carry over to the next royalty period (negative amounts always carry over).

To auto-flag:

1. Set your threshold in Admin (bottom of main Admin screen).
2. Open the Royalties Menu.
3. Select Flag Eligible for Payout.

Flag Manually

Carrying forward; check the box to Pay Out 2023

You can flag records manually by clicking the checkbox on the statement record itself, or in list view.

Hint: in Royalty list view, you can see the Statement Amount for all listed records by clicking the header. That will toggle on display of the amounts. This setting is off by default, because it requires PubGizmo to compute royalties for every statement in the list, which can be painfully slow. Click the header again to turn off this display.

Compose or Edit Stock Messages

For bulk-sending royalty statements, PubGizmo offers two stock messages:

1. contractee (author, etc.),
2. literary agent of record for the contract, if relevant.

Merge Tags

Message text is merged with recipient data at the time the message is sent. The subject and body text of these messages are set in Administration > Bulk Mail Templates tab. The templates include a number of merge tags, each enclosed in "<" and ">", into which relevant data is substituted at the time the message is composed. These tags include:

• <Year> The royalty year, if your press uses the calendar year for statement period, otherwise the start and end dates of the royalty period.
• <Title> The book's title, or titles, if the author has multiple active contracts, in a comma-delimited list (Title1, Title2, etc.).
• <GreetingName> The value in the Correspondence Name field on the recipients Contact record (defaults to the contact's first name, but can be edited). For Organization contractees, this will attempt to use the email address of the Org's rep, if defined on the Contract, otherwise it will use the Org name.
• <Artist> The contractee's first and last name. Note: in the Agent email, this will substitute with the phrase "(refer to attached PDF)".
• <Address> Recipient's mailing address in one line.

Contractees/Agents With Multiple Statements

Rather than sending out multiple individual statements to an author, PubGizmo "rolls up" statements, that is, gathers all relevant statements into a single PDF, and attaches them to one email message, under these circumstances:

• author/contractee has multiple active contracts
• literary agent is agent-of-record on multiple active contracts

Proof the Statements

Important! You should examine every statement before it is sent. You can do this in two different ways:

1. On Screen: page through statements using the arrow buttons at the upper-left (slower)
2. Generate a PDF: create a single PDF with all the statements (faster)

To generate a PDF, select PDF Found Statements (will generate a PDF containing only those Royalty records in the found set), or PDF All Calc Statements (PDF containing all statements with the Calculate Royalty flag active). The PDF is saved to your desktop.

Send the Statements

When you select Bulk Email Statements, PubGizmo generates draft email messages (it does not send them) addressed to the contractee's primary email address (as configured on their Contact record), with the statement attached, and similarly generates draft email messages to literary agents. Your default email program must be Mac Mail if you are on macOS, or Outlook if you use Windows (let us know if you use something else).

You can customize the email message as you like, and send each individually.

Create Payment Records

This step "locks in" the amounts, such as the advance remaining and carry-forward values, which inform calculations for your next royalty run.

Important notes:

1. All of the steps above must be fully complete (all sales records imported, appropriate records set to calculate and pay-out, statements fully proofed) before you complete this stage. If you change anything for the current period, you will have to create the Payment records again.
2. You must complete this step for each royalty period before running the subsequent one, because important values (e.g., Advance Remaining) are carried over via Payment records. Your next period will be inaccurate if the previous period's Payment records have not been generated.
3. If you have created any Payment records previously and try to do so again, PubGizmo will warn you that records already exist, and they will be deleted and new ones generated. This is fine: the new Payment records will be created using the latest royalties data.

CSV Export

Generate on your desktop a CSV (spreadsheet, can be opened in Excel), which summarizes the statements. You can provide this to your accountant.