Royalty Statements: January 2026

It's royalty season!

At least, for my books that were published by Razorbill (which was folded into Putnam a few years back).

If you missed my initial royalty break down (which included additional details about the first royalty period for each book), you can check that out here.

I also want to make sure I shout out Jason June, who is the first author I saw sharing transparent numbers this way and inspired this series.

Without further adieu, here's a break down of my royalties from April 1, 2025 - Sept 30, 2025. 

My January 2026 Royalty Statements

Overall, this was a lower sales period for me than last time, which makes sense for a couple of reasons.

1 - My books continue to age (obviously, that's how time works), and it's honestly kind of a miracle that they're still selling at a clip of a couple grand a year in royalties 5-7 years after they came out, especially in the current YA market. 

2 - Since my books are witchy, sales tend to be best around Halloween, and this sales period doesn't include the month of October. Although, as you'll see below, this year didn't have quite as much of a spooky season bump as is typical. 

3 - Finally, I believe it was in this six month period (or shortly before?) when my publisher decided they wouldn't print any more paperbacks of This Coven Won't Break, making it impossible for stories to get new copies in stock, which obviously doesn't help sales. 

Here's the royalty overview in the PRH portal:

 
In total, my publisher will be sending $1,337.94 to my previous agent (the one who sold these books), and then she'll take her 15% commission and send the remaining $1,137.24 to me. In general, the timeline from the statement being posted to the money hitting my account is usually within 10 business days. 

You may also notice that The Coldest Touch has a negative statement balance. That book has not yet earned out, and I'm not sure that it will unless future book releases give that title fresh attention or there's some other external thing (film/tv, for example) that makes it fresh again. (I also think it could benefit from a cover redesign, but that's not going to happen until there's something big externally that happens.) 

  
So, How Many Copies is That?

Let's break it down.

These Witches Don't Burn (2019 release, $20k advance)

• Total Copies Sold: 71,148
• Copies Sold this Period: 670 (about half of the previous 6 month period)

This Coven Won't Break (2020 release, $20k advance)

• Total Copies Sold: 25,006
• Copies Sold this Period: 181 copies sold in ebook and audio, but 105 paperbacks were returned, so the net sales on the statement is 76 copies

The Coldest Touch (2021 release, $35k advance)

• Total Copies Sold: 14,734
• Copies Sold this Period: 170

Here's what that looks like on the graph:

In the graph, These Witches Don't Burn is in pink, This Coven Won't Break is in green, and The Coldest Touch is in blue.

There was some sort of ebook sale in July on These Witches Don't Burn so we see a big spike that week, and it looks like there's a little bit of a bump in June for Pride Month, but overall, things were relatively steady. Which, again, isn't bad for sapphic YA titles that are 5-7 years old.

 
Other Numbers and Takeaways

For shits and giggles, I decided to track month-to-month for 2024 and 2025 to see if there are any patterns to be found:

2024 Sales (per the PRH portal)

2025 Sales (per the PRH portal)

Ultimately... there weren't as many obvious patterns as I thought there might be. I highlighted the top few months each year in pink, and there's a tiny bump around Halloween, but we're only talking about a couple dozen copies of difference this year (while last year that differences was a couple hundred copies). 

Astute math-people may notice some discrepancies with some of those numbers. For example, the royalty statement said TWDB sold 670 copies April 1 - Sept 30, 2025, whereas this graph only indicates 556 sales. There's always a bit of a gap between the portal and the royalty statement, which is the difference between point of sale tracking and shipped vs returns (at least, I'm pretty sure that's what it is). 

Looking ahead, there are a few things that I think could give these books a bump.

1 - It's possible that the release of With All My Haunted Heart could potentially bring new readers into my backlist, BUT since that's an adult title and all of these are YA books, it could potentially have zero (or very negligible) impact on these titles. 

2 - If I end up publishing in YA again, I think that would have the best chance of reinvigorating these books, especially if whoever publishes the new YA includes them in an "also by" section (this isn't always a given if you switch publishers). 

Final Thoughts

It's important to know your numbers as an author, but it's also important to remember that those numbers are actual human beings who have purchased and (hopefully!) read your books.

So while, sure, $1k of royalty money doesn't stretch very far when you're doing this author thing full-time (which for me also includes coaching!), but it is pretty cool to get royalties on books I haven't touched in 5+ years.

It's also incredibly heartwarming to think of the thousand or so new people who found my books during that 6-month period. Books are incredibly powerful, and I'm glad I get to share mine with the world.

Happy writing,
Isabel 

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