Returns make shipped and sold different numbers
A book on a shelf is not a book sold, and the adjustment can arrive two reporting periods later.
WHY THE AUTHOR CANNOT CHECK
Every input is invisible and only the output is shared.
The publisher receives sales reports, nets off returns, applies the contract, and produces a statement. Each step is legitimate work that the author never sees.
The statement is a summary of a summary
By the time it reaches the author, several rounds of aggregation have happened, none of them visible.
An audit clause exists and is unusable
Most contracts permit an audit. Almost no author can afford one, so the right is theoretical.
Doubt is corrosive even when unfounded
A publisher acting entirely properly still cannot demonstrate it, which poisons relationships that both sides want to keep.
If you publish, or are published.
The useful thing is concrete: what your statement shows and what you wish it showed.
nadia.puspita@cetakterbaca.online
Bandung, Jawa Barat