What happens to an author's royalty money when they die?

J

Jeanne

New member
Let's say we have a hugely popular author whose books sell well even 50 years after they're published (Lucy Maud Montgomery, Jane Austen or more recently Stephen King and Nora Roberts). Or perhaps a one-hit-wonder who gets hit by a car a year after their multi-million selling novel has been published and it's still on bestseller lists everywhere.
What happens to the earnings when they die? Do their relatives collect the money? Do the publishers keep it? Does the agent get their share still as well?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not planning to murder anyone in the near future, the question just popped into my head today and I wondered what happens then.
 
Assuming the author made a will, his share of the income from his books goes to whoever the will says should get it. If he didn't make a will, there are various laws about who's entitled to a share of it.

The agent and the publisher continue to collect their share because, well, it's their money, not the author's.

Eventually, the copyright in the author's books expires, and anyone can do whatever they like with the text. Basically that means the publisher can keep all the profits. The author's descendants and the agent (or his descendants) no longer get anything. But because the books are out of copyright, anyone can publish their own edition and keep all the profits from it.
 
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