PFH vs Royalty Share: run the numbers

A deal calculator for authors, Rights Holders, and the narrators they cast.

Choosing between Per Finished Hour and Royalty Share comes down to budget and your preference for keeping rights, but at its core it is, and should be, a financial decision. PFH is capital up front and every royalty afterwards is yours. Royalty Share is little or nothing up front, and half of every sale belongs to your narrator for the life of the term. Which trade wins depends on numbers you can actually estimate: your book's length, a realistic monthly sales figure, and the going narration rates.

This calculator shows both sides of the same deal. If you're an author weighing your production model, your numbers lead. If you're a narrator weighing an audition, the same results show what the deal means for you, and whether the Rights Holder's offer is one a working narrator can say yes to. A deal only happens when the numbers work twice.

Book details
Typical novel: 70,000–100,000
Enter a positive number
Default 9,300 wph (industry average)
Enter a value between 5,000–15,000
Commonly 7 years
Enter 1–15 years
Financial assumptions
$
Enter a positive dollar amount
$
Per finished hour (often $0)
Enter 0 or a positive amount
$
Total per copy, split 50/50 under RS
Enter a positive dollar amount
Sales estimate
Average over the full contract term
Enter a positive number
Note: estimates only. Actual income depends on list price, royalty rates, sales trajectory, returns, and each platform's terms, including pooled or membership-based payout models, which vary month to month. Under Royalty Share the net royalty per sale is split 50/50 between Rights Holder and narrator; under PFH the Rights Holder keeps all royalties. All figures assume constant monthly sales across the term.

Reading the results honestly

The breakeven month is the heart of it: the point where the narrator's accumulating royalty half catches the PFH fee they gave up. Before that month, Royalty Share has cost you less than PFH would have; after it, every sale costs you more than the production ever would have. The same month, read from the narrator's chair, is where their investment starts beating the flat fee. One number, two verdicts.

Two honest cautions. First, the sales estimate dominates everything: be conservative, because the narrator reading your listing will be. Second, if the calculator says Royalty Share never catches up within the term, believe it: that's a deal that asks the narrator to fund your production at a loss, and experienced narrators will read it the same way. A modest stipend (the Hybrid structure) often turns that listing from passed-over to cast.

For the fuller picture (what each structure is for and how it fits your distribution choices) see Your audiobook options in 2026. When you're ready to post, the listing prep guide walks through presenting your deal so the right narrators say yes. And if you want contract paper that matches the structure you choose, our sister site Sleuthy publishes an audiobook contracts bundle (a starting point, not legal advice). And once a royalty-share deal is earning, our sister tool Royaltally tracks the royalties and splits them to everyone you pay.

This calculator is adapted from the free Audiobook Income Calculator on Sleuthy, our sister tool for working narrators: same math, shown from both sides of the deal.