How AI Helps Me Understand My Author Royalty Statements

My first book, Why New Systems Fail, earned out in late 2010.¹ Ever since then, publishers have sent me semi-annual royalty statements telling me how much money I could expect to receive from my books' sales. In today's post, I'll explain how AI helps me undertsand them in a fraction of the time it has historically taken me. Whether or not you've ever written a book, there's a larger lesson here.

Background

First, though, here's a bit of background for those of you unfamiliar with author royalty statements. I'll put this as delicately as I know how: they are confusing AF.

I'm hardly the only person to make this claim. The Authors Guild and Pearson even provide detailed guides on how to interpret them because these documents regularly resemble health insurance claims. On the final page, authors will find the amount of money the publisher is supposed to remit. If you owe your publisher, then the balance will be negative.