This article is part of our Complete Guide to Royalty Management.
If you are new to publishing, you have probably seen the term “royalty run” and wondered what it actually means. It is not complicated, but it does involve several steps that need to happen in the right order. In this article we will walk through the entire process from start to finish so you understand exactly what happens between a book sale and an author getting paid.
The royalty run, defined
A royalty run is the end-to-end process a publisher follows to calculate how much each rights holder is owed for a given period and then pay them. Think of it as one complete cycle of royalty processing. Every publisher does this, whether they realize they are calling it a “run” or not.
Each royalty run covers one specific period (a quarter, a half-year, or a year) and one period type. You cannot mix quarterly titles and annual titles in the same run. If you have titles on different schedules, you will need separate runs for each. For more on choosing the right cadence, see our article on picking a royalty period frequency.
Step one: upload your sales data
Everything starts with sales data. Your distributors send you reports showing how many copies of each title were sold, at what price, and through which channels. Before you can run any calculations, you need to get that data into your system.
For most publishers, this means downloading CSV or Excel files from distributor portals and importing them. The sales data tells you what sold, where it sold, and for how much. Without it, there is nothing to calculate royalties on.
Step two: link distributor income payments
Sales data alone is not enough. You also need to know how much money your distributors actually paid you, because that is what you will use to calculate royalties based on net receipts.
Publisher income payments are the amounts your distributors deposit into your bank account. You link each payment to the corresponding sales batch so that every sale line gets converted from the currency it was sold in to your own publisher currency. This reconciliation step is critical. It connects what was sold to what you were actually paid.
If you are still tracking all of this in spreadsheets, you will quickly see why purpose-built software exists. If you download our free guide, you will get a clear picture of what the manual process looks like and where it breaks down.
Step three: run the calculation
This is the heart of the royalty run. Once your sales data is uploaded and your income payments are linked, you run the allocation. The allocation step takes each sales line and splits it among rights holders based on the ownership and royalty rules you have set up for each title.
Here is a simple example. Say you have an ebook with two authors who each earn a percentage of net receipts. The allocation takes the net receipts figure for each sale, applies each author’s royalty rate, and creates a royalty line for each of them. Whatever is left over after all rights holders have been allocated their share goes to the publisher.
The result is a set of royalty lines, each representing an amount owed to a specific rights holder in your publisher currency. If you want to understand the different ways royalties can be structured, our article on book royalties covers the fundamentals.
Step four: generate bills
Once the allocation is complete, the next step is to generate bills. A bill is essentially an invoice from the rights holder to you, the publisher. It summarizes what you owe them for the period.
Bills take into account any advances, deductions, or reserves that apply. If an author has an unearned advance, their royalties will offset that balance before any payment is due. The bill captures all of this in one place.
Step five: generate and send statements
A royalty statement is the detailed PDF document that shows a rights holder exactly how their earnings were calculated. It includes sales figures, royalty rates, deductions, and the final amount due.
Statements are what your authors actually see. They are the transparency layer in your relationship with rights holders, and getting them right matters. For more on what authors expect from these documents, take a look at our article on what authors want from royalty statements.
Once statements are generated, you send them to your rights holders. After statements have been emailed, the royalty run is locked and can no longer be edited.
Step six: export bills and process payments
The final step is paying your authors. You export the bills from the royalty run so they can be loaded into your accounting software or payment system. From there, you process the actual payments to each rights holder.
This is where the royalty run ends and your normal accounts payable process takes over.
The four-tab workflow in Royalties HQ
Royalties HQ organizes the entire royalty run into four tabs that guide you through each stage.
Checklist. Before any calculations happen, the Checklist tab validates your data. It flags missing ISBNs, unreconciled publisher income, and anything else that needs attention before you proceed. Red alerts must be resolved. Yellow warnings are informational but worth reading. Once everything shows green ticks, you click “Allocate royalties” to move forward.
Royalty Lines. This tab shows the results of the allocation. Every royalty line represents an amount owed to a specific rights holder. You can review the breakdown before moving on to billing.
Bills. Here you generate the bills for each rights holder. Each bill consolidates all royalty lines for that rights holder into a single payable amount, accounting for advances and deductions.
Statements. The final tab is where you generate and send PDF royalty statements to your rights holders. Once statements are emailed, the run is complete.
The green button at the top of the royalty run moves you forward through these steps, while the orange button lets you step back if you need to make corrections.
Why understanding this process matters
Even if you have never heard the term “royalty run” before, this is the workflow every publisher follows to pay their authors. The steps do not change whether you are managing five titles or five thousand. What changes is how painful each step is depending on your tools.
Understanding the full funnel helps you spot where your current process is slow, error-prone, or risky. It also makes it easier to evaluate software, set expectations with your team, and communicate clearly with your rights holders about when and how they will be paid.