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Import custom sales

You can import custom sales data – e.g. your own e-commerce sales or sales from an unsupported distributor – using the Royalties HQ sales CSV template. For importing Amazon KDP, Lightning Source, or Findaway sales imports, see this help page instead.

Tip: if you’re importing wholesale order or e-commerce sales, you might find our ‘Processing wholesale orders‘ guide useful.

Download the sales import template #

First, download the sales import template from the ‘Add New Sales’ page:

  1. In the main menu (icon top left) click Add New Sales. 
  2. Click the “Download sales import template” Link.
  3. The template is downloaded to your computer.

Prepare your sales data #

Next, use your spreadsheet software (for example, Google Sheets, or Excel) to populate the template with your sales data. Note: Excel and Google Sheets like to be ‘helpful’ and format your numbers, so please avoid this. You must format numbers as text.

Custom sales data #

The sales upload template includes some instructions on each line that starts with a #. This info is to help you format your data correctly for importing. Any line starting with a ‘#’ will be skipped in the import process, so can either be ignored or safely deleted before importing.

Required data #

  • Each sales line must contain an ISBN or an ASIN. This identifies the title format.
  • The ‘royalty_month‘ is the month in which the royalty applies in YYYY-MM format, for example 2024-08
  • The currency is the ISO-4217 code, e.g. USD or GBP.
  • The ‘royalty’ is the net amount earned by you, the publisher (‘royalty_on_sales‘ minus ‘royalty_on_refunds‘), in decimal format, without a currency symbol. For example, 3.78.
  • The ‘royalty_on_sales‘ is the royalty payable on all sales. This may be higher than the ‘royalty’ if there were refunds. Must be in decimal format, without a currency symbol.
  • The ‘units_sold‘ is required if the ‘royalty_on_sales’ is greater than zero. It is a count of titles sold. (Not required for Kindle ebooks that are part of Kindle Select and have a KENP read quantity). Must be a positive number, or zero, or it can be left empty.
  • sales channel – For custom imports, use ‘other’
  • sale_country is only required if your contracts include rules with sale country conditions, e.g. different % royalty share based on the country of sale.
  • The ‘discount_percent‘ (or just ‘discount’) is required only for contracts that use a list price royalty (where a rights holder is awarded a percentage of the list price of this title format).

Custom sales – optional data #

  • The ‘royalty_on_refunds‘ is the royalty amount clawed back due to refunds. This must be a negative amount. Decimal format, without a currency symbol.
  • The ‘units_refunded‘ is required if the ‘royalty_on_refunds’ is greater than zero. It is a count of titles returned or refunded. Must be a positive number, or zero, or can be left empty.
  • The ‘kenp_read‘ number is Amazon’s measure of pages read and applies only to KENP ‘Kindle Unlimited’ e-books.
  • ‘marketplace’ is optional, but recommended. Use the name of the distributor or sale type, e.g. “wholesale”
  • ‘list_price‘ is optional but recommended; it is the price the product sold for, or was listed at, in the marketplace currency. In decimal format, without a currency symbol.
  • ‘title’ and ‘author’ are optional but can be useful as a visual check during import.

When you are ready to import your custom sales data, follow the steps below:

How to upload custom sales data #

To upload your custom sales files:

  1. Go to the main menu (icon top left) and click Add New Sales. 
  2. Drop your sales file into the dropzone (or click the dropzone and select your file)
  3. Royalties HQ will attempt to recognise the type of file. This will be shown in a drop-down. Once the correct type of file is selected, click Continue.
  4. The file will now be checked, and will show status as ‘Validating’ while Royalties HQ checks that the file can be imported.
  5. If the file shows as ‘Ready to import’, click the Import button (or, if it shows ‘Rejected’, click on the filename to see more details, then click on ‘Invalid rows’ – details of errors will be shown).
  6. After import, the contents of the file will be imported. Each row becomes a sales line, grouped into one or more sales batches. Click the View Batches button to see the imported sales batches.

Once you’ve uploaded sales data, you need to add a publisher income payment for each sales batch.