We try to make our royalty structure as simple and transparent as possible. We call it the 55-65-75-90 System. It works as follows:

• 55%: After manufacturing costs are recouped, creators receive a 55 percent cut of gross sales on all non-apparel items.
• 65%: After manufacturing costs are recouped, creators receive a 65 percent cut of gross sales on all apparel items (including hats and socks).
• 75%: If a creator would prefer to front manufacturing costs themselves, DFTBA pays a flat 75 percent royalty on gross sales of all physical products.
• 90%: Creators receive a 90 percent cut of gross sales on all digital products.

Our royalty period is the calendar month. Your royalty payment will be processed on or before the 10th of each month. It may take a few days for the payment to arrive in your bank. 

What does your royalty include?
DFTBA prides ourselves on our full service approach to merchandise. We take care of every stage of product development from ideation to fulfillment. As part of your royalty you receive:

• A Project Coordinator who will be your main contact for all things merchandise. Your coordinator can help you brainstorm ideas, source or create a design, source manufacturers, create mockups, generate quotes, and launch your merch. 
• Up to two hours of free design services per month. These hours can not be banked, and restart on the first of each month.
• We offer excellent customer service! Our team will help your customers with any question regarding their shipment. They operate 9-5 MT, Monday through Friday.
• Warehousing and fulfillment are also all included in our price. We will store active merchandise and ship worldwide with competitive shipping prices. 
• We can also help you develop a merchandise strategy that fits with your goals and your audience.

What doesn’t your royalty include?
There are a few things we aren’t able to offer to creators, or that we charge an additional fee for:

• Marketing. We rely on creators to market their own merchandise. As you have the most direct contact with your audience, and the best idea of what they want it is up to you to talk about your merch. We do expect creators to have a clear plan for marketing before any merchandise drops. You can fill out a marketing plan here, or work with your coordinator to customize a plan. 
• Design services over 2 hours per month. As each of our coordinators has many creators who they work with, we have to limit the time they spend on design. Any design work a coordinator does over two hours per month is billed at a rate of $175/hour
• Prepping merchandise for events. When our warehouse puts together boxes or pallets to deliver your merch to events we charge at a rate of $25/hour. 

White Labels:
If your merchandise is housed outside of DFTBA.com royalties are calculated slightly differently. You will be quoted a rate before signing a contract. Creators who own White Label stores are required to collect the money from all sales. DFTBA administers the site, and invoices for our fee at the end of each month. 

Books:
We represent a lot of authors and royalties on books can be very weird. In general we purchase books directly from the publisher. We have established relationships with most publishers, and usually get a wholesaler discount* which is more than the Artist discount. 
*The wholesaler discount does not allow for returns. 

Even with our discount, in most cases we can’t compete with Amazon for book prices, so we like to bundle books with exclusive products and value adds to justify the higher price. 

Authors receive a royalty from their publisher when we purchase books for them so we DO NOT give creators royalties on any book that we purchase. DFTBA recoups the full cost of the books. Creators receive a royalty on the value adds we bundle with books. We do not need to put book expenses in the dashboard, or create a royalty in the dashboard for the product. 
Ex. 

• Creator wants to sell their book on DFTBA with a signed bookplate and a pin. They have a normal royalty so recoup expenses through royalties. 
• The book costs DFTBA $5, bookplate $1, and Pin $2. We want to sell the bundle for $20. 
• DFTBA buys the book upfront and recoups that money separately, so we subtract the $5 from the sale price of $20. Therefore the creator receives royalties on $15 of the sale. 
• The creator’s royalty is 55%, so they make $8.25 on each sale. Expenses are $3. So they will bank $5.25 per sale.

If you purchase your own books to send to DFTBA you receive a 75% royalty on them.