Direct Pay Authorization: Fill & Download for Free

Traditional book publishers pay their authors twice a year, accompanying royalty statements that report how many copies were sold, how many returned, etc. This payment used to be done by check, but nowadays it’s usually direct deposit or some other form of bank transfer.If the author has an agent, the publisher pays the agent; the agent keeps his share and sends the rest to the author, either by check, direct deposit, or some other bank transfer. If the author has no agent, the publisher pays the author directly.Some publishers make international payments via PayPal, because they handle currency changes better than most offline banks.Small presses and small magazines often make payments through PayPal, as well. Others still send checks, but that’s changing; just this morning I provided one of my publishers with the information to switch to direct deposit.

Harper Collins authors get paid according to the agreement on their contracts. They get advances, which are generally divided in three parts, 1/3 on signing the contract, 1/3 on acceptance of the manuscript and 1/3 on publication of the book. Since Harper Collins only accepts agented manuscripts, these payments will first go to the agent, who will disburse the remainder to the author by check or direct deposit after the agency fee is deducted. The authors will, if the advance earns out, then collect royalties, which are disbursed twice a year, going first to the agent, then to the author. I’m not sure what schedule Harper Collins works on for that; one of my publishers disburses in March and September, one in June and December, and one in April and October.As to how much the advances are, the answer is different for every author, whether or not they are new or established, low, mid or highlist, and what their track record is. A beginning author can expect an advance of between $5k and $10k, divided according to the schedule I laid out, unless the book is seen as very desireable and has gone to auction (this is incredibly rare). A highlist author can get as much as a million dollars as an advance, but usually gets around $100k. A midlist will get somewhere between $10k and $35k.

I am not aware of any scientific journals that directly pay to the authors.Some IEEE Transactions encourage authors to "offset the cost of publication" by voluntarily paying (the journal) $100-200 per page. They may also require payment for every page after some limit (such as 13), whereas some journals do not limit pages. I don't recall any ACM Transactions requiring payment.Science and Nature may charge authors for color figures(which seems odd b/c color figures make papers more attractive).Some open-access journals (the ones that do not charge for access to papers) require authors to pay for publication. Other such journals (less competitive) do not."Page charges" are considered a standard budget item in grant proposals - few researchers pay out of their pocket. However, in Computer Science, I'd be suspicious of journals that charge authors for publishing their work (in many cases, this is a sign of a second-rate journal).I am also not aware of any US universities that link publication rates to salary increases or bonuses. On the other hand, assistant professors who publish very little may be in danger of losing their job (not being reappointed or not being tenured) - this is an important factor.