When you resell a book you bought on Published NFT, the author is paid a share of that sale automatically. Not invoiced, not claimed later — the split happens as part of the transaction itself.
This is the single clearest thing a blockchain does for authors that a traditional publisher cannot. A used paperback earns its author nothing on resale, however many times it changes hands. A book on Published NFT earns them something every time.
The rate
| Collection | Royalty |
|---|---|
| Most collections | 5% of the resale price |
| A small number of earlier collections | 2.5% |
The rate is written into the collection's smart contract when it is deployed and cannot be changed afterwards — not by us, not by a marketplace, not by a buyer. You can read it off the contract yourself at any time.
Who gets paid
The royalty goes to the author or rights holder of that specific book. On collections with more than one contributor — an illustrator, a translator, a narrator — the split is set at deployment and paid out the same way.
What this means for you as a buyer
Nothing is deducted from you on the way in. The royalty comes out of the resale price when you sell, in the same way an agent's commission would. Buy a book for 25 and sell it for 40, and 5% of that 40 goes to the author.
Where royalties are honoured
Royalties are enforced by the contract on Flow, so any Flow marketplace pays them. On other marketplaces — including those that index Flow EVM — enforcement depends on the marketplace. We build new collections so that the royalty travels with the book rather than depending on the venue's goodwill, because a royalty a marketplace can decline to pay is not really a royalty.
For authors
If you are publishing with us, the royalty percentage is agreed before the collection is deployed. See How To Get Published? to start that conversation.