How do royalties work with Q&A type of books?
I have not studied how book royalties work, but royalties are in the realm of contract law. If there is no contract, the interviewee’s words might be treated as public domain facts—the situation could be analogous to reporting the news or publishing interviews in magazines. If we look at this from a copyright law perspective, you may own the copyright if you are the one who fixes the expressions—that is, the person who wrote it down. An interviewee that wants royalties for answers should negotiate a contract for them (contract law) or be named as a co-author (copyright law). I hope this helps. I did not have the time to do any research.
