Publisher with editing troubleneeds help with math, too

A few days ago I complained that a book written by the boss of Outskirts Press and the corporate website had silly errors in spelling, publishing history, book structure and more. My headline declared that the publisher needs an editor.

It now appears that Outskirts employees need a math tutor.

Yesterday I received an email from one of their author services people, who periodically sends me an email blast to try to convince me to use Outskirts Press.

Karl Schroeder (photo from his Facebook page) related an alleged conversation with a happy Outskirts author. He said, "Outskirts Press was her first choice because our authors keep all their rights. And she liked our pricing flexibility. The other publisher pays her 200% less in royalties. Yes, 200% LESS."

I'm no Einstein, but I think there's something very strange about that number.

To keep it simple, let's assume that Outskirts would pay a royalty of $100 for some quantity of books sold at some price over some period of time.

If the other publisher paid $50, it would be 50% less than Outskirts paid.

If the other publisher paid $25, it would be 75% less than Outskirts paid.

If the other publisher paid absolutely nothing, it would be 100% less.

Unless there's a way to receive less than nothing, I can't see how it's possible to be paid 200% less than anything.

I asked for an explanation but I didn't get one.

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