Simon & Schuster launched Simon Stream in July, and the pitch is aimed straight at us. You don’t need an agent, submissions are open, they promise an answer within six weeks, and they pay 50% ebook royalties monthly, with Big 5 editing and marketing on top.
Before you open the submission form, look at what the headline signing did.
Jack Gatland is the imprint’s flagship author, and he’s Tony Lee, a #1 New York Times bestseller with close to half a billion Kindle Unlimited page reads. What he gave Simon Stream is a brand-new five-book cozy series, The Moriarty & Co Mysteries, out on 27 October. His existing series stayed where they were, and he keeps releasing new indie books next to it. A writer with decades in both camps licensed a side project to a publisher, and the catalogue that built his name stays in his own hands. Smart move, and not the story the press release tells.
50% of what?
Simon Stream pays 50% of net receipts on ebooks, where traditional publishers usually pay around 25%, so by trad standards this is generous, and S&S will tell you so.
Now put it next to KDP, because that’s your real alternative. Price an ebook at $4.99 and Amazon pays you about $3.49 a sale at the 70% rate, minus a small delivery fee. Put the same book through Simon Stream and Amazon pays S&S the $3.49, then S&S pays you half, so you get roughly $1.75.
There’s no advance to cushion that, so if S&S sells twice as many copies as you would have, you break even, and you’ve paid for editing and marketing with half your royalty for as long as the contract runs. If they sell fewer, you’ve lost money on a book you already wrote.
Doubling an established indie’s sales is possible, but it’s also a big ask of an imprint whose first flagship title hasn’t come out yet, so nobody has a sales record to judge it by.
What the FAQ doesn’t say
The FAQ is long and friendly, and it skips the clauses that decide whether a deal is any good.
How long do they keep the rights, and when do they come back? The page doesn’t say, and instead it offers to “discuss rights by format and territory,” which is where a contract lives or dies.
What do print and audio pay? Only the ebook rate is published. Every book gets a human-narrated audiobook, which is great, but it also means your audio rights sit in the deal at a rate nobody has disclosed.
Does the book stay in Kindle Unlimited? Books go to subscription channels “where rights allow,” and if your income is KU page reads, get a written yes or no before you sign.
Who sets the price? The marketing plan includes “pricing activity,” so S&S does, and the Moriarty Murders print edition is listed at £13.99 on Amazon UK, which is a lot for a print-on-demand cozy mystery.
You also give up the final say on title and cover, and while they’ll work closely with you, their team uses market insight to decide. That’s fine if you trust their team, and less fine if your covers already convert.
Who should take it
I’m not saying nobody should sign. If you can’t afford a good editor and narrator and would like a Big 5 name on the spine, 50% of net with no upfront cost beats the 25% you’d get almost anywhere else in trad, and a debut with no readers loses little by trying.
The mistake is moving a series that already earns, because you’d be swapping 70% for about 35% on books whose readers found them without any help from S&S.
Before you sign anything
the rights term, plus a reversion clause with a sales threshold, in writing
the print and audio royalty rates
whether the ebook goes into KU, and at what price
what happens to your series if the imprint closes
whether you can keep the ebook rights and license only audio and print
Or do what Gatland did: give them something new, and keep what already pays you.