These short "booklets" are proliferating across many different subjects in philosophy, and while some have been pretty bad, others have attracted serious authors and look more promising.  The Elements volumes offer one very attractive feature for authors (especially junior authors), which is that the volume is made available for free downloads the first two weeks after publication.  But they have another feature which is very odd and very unattractive for more senior authors:  Cambridge does not pay royalties, just a flat fee ($250 recently).   Despite this, Cambridge University Press charges $20-25 per booklet!   

I was invited to contribute to the Cambridge Elements series on Nietzsche, and had originally agreed to do a volume until I discovered this bizarre financial arrangement.   Nietzsche books sell well by academic standards, and my past Nietzsche books have sold especially well (Nietzsche on Morality has sold 6-7,000 copies the last time I looked).   At a standard 8% royalty rate, and assuming rather modest sales of, say, 2,000 copies of my Nietzsche Elements volume, I would be effectively making a charitable donation to Cambridge University Press by producing the volume for a mere $250.  CUP, I have to admit, is not my charity of choice.  Since I have had other inquiries about doing an introductory volume on Nietzsche, into which the material I would have produced for the Elements volume will no doubt make its way, I decided to withdraw from the project.  I am writing about this here so that other philosophers are aware of the very peculiar arrangement CUP is making with Elements authors, which is unlike any I have encountered in 25+ years of dealing with academic publishers.

UPDATE:   Just to be clear, lump sum payments in lieu of royalties are not uncommon (e.g. $1000 for editing a book, and royalties on edited books are always much lower than 8%).   What is notable in this case is how small the lump sum payment is, relative to the price of the volumes.  One reader, a younger philosopher, tells me of being offered royalties as low as 2.5%, which surprised me.  5-8% was, I thought, pretty standard, sometimes rising to the higher level after a certain level of sales.