A novelist pays her agent 15% of the royalties she receives from her

Question

A novelist pays her agent 15% of the royalties she receives from her novels. She pays her publicist 5% of the royalties, plus a yearly fee. Did the novelist pay more to her agent last year than she paid to her publicist?

(1) The publicist's yearly fee is $2,000.
(2)The novelist earned an average of $3,500 in royalties last year on each of her novels.

DS53541.01

Karmesh · Accepted Answer

This is a typical GMAT question. (C-TRAP)
Trying to trick you with language while dropping subtle hints.

While we can clearly see A&B are INSUFF
There is one thing we need to notice in order to avoid the C-trap " last year on each of her novels."
This suggests that there are multiple novels at play. Since, we don't know how many novels, we can't really find how much the publicist and the agent are earning. (Their fees is 5% and 15% of the royalty PER novel)

stne · Answer

Hi  gmatt1476 ,

Take a small amount and a large amount and check

(1) The publicist's yearly fee is $2,000.
Let her royalties be 1000 then agent gets 150 and Publicist get 2000 + 5% of 1000 so obviously Publicist gets more
Let her royalties be 100,000 then agent gets 15000 and publicist gets 5000 + 2000= 7000, here agent gets more 
Hence In suff.

(2)The novelist earned an average of $3,500 in royalties last year on each of her novels.
We have no idea of the yearly fees of the Publicist hence In suff.

Taking 1+2 together 
Let there be 1 novel then agent gets 525 and Publicist gets 2000 + 5% of 3500, obviously Publicist gets more.
let there be 1000 Novels then total Royalties 350000, so agent gets 52500 and Publicist gets 17500+2000 =19500, so here agent gets more
hence In suff.
Ans- E

ZoltanBP · Answer

Let R be her royalties and let x be the yearly fee of her publicist. The original question:
Is 0.15R > 0.05R + x
0.1R > x
R > 10x ?

1)  We know that x=2000 and can use this statement information to further rephrase the original question.
Is R > 20000 ?
Clearly, we can't get a definite answer to the further rephrased question.  \implies   Insufficient

2)  Let n be the number of her novels. We know that R=3500n and can use this statement information to further rephrase the original question.
Is 3500n > 10x ?
Clearly, we can't get a definite answer to the further rephrased question.  \implies   Insufficient

1&2)  Using all statement information, we can further rephrase the original question.
Is 3500n > 20000 ?
Clearly, we can't get a definite answer to the further rephrased question.  \implies   Insufficient

Answer: E

pulak1988 · Answer

there are 2 equations.

total is x, then agent gets = 15/100 of x
and publicist gets 5/100 of x + y (yearly fees)

stmnt 1 = doesnt say anything about y
stmnt 2: doesnt say anything about y

combined, we dont get anything about y. hence answer'E'

Basshead · Answer

A novelist pays her agent 15% of the royalties she receives from her novels. She pays her publicist 5% of the royalties, plus a yearly fee. Did the novelist pay more to her agent last year than she paid to her publicist?

(1) The publicist's yearly fee is $2,000.

We're given percentages in the question; we don't know if $2,000 > 10%. INSUFFICIENT.

(2)The novelist earned an average of $3,500 in royalties last year on each of her novels.

Clearly insufficient.

(1&2) Knowing the average of royalties for each of her novels AND hear yearly fee is not enough information to conclude who she paid more. INSUFFICIENT.

Answer is E.

Pritishd · Answer

1. Let royalties be presented as  R  and yearly fee of the publicist be presented as  F 
2. The agent is paid  0.15R  and publicist is paid  0.05R + F 
3. If the agent is paid more than the publicist the  0.15R > 0.05R + F    -->    0.10R > F    -->    R > 10F 
4. We need the value of  R  and  F  to answer the question

Statement - I ( Insufficient ) 
Gives us the value of  F  but not the value of  R

Statement - II ( Insufficient ) 
1. This information does not tell us the number of novels sold hence we cannot find the value of  R 
2. Also, does not give us the value of  F

Statement - I & II Combined ( Insufficient ) 
1. We get the value of  F 
2. But, does not tell us the number of novels sold hence we cannot find the value of  R

Ans.  E

wishmasterdj · Answer

It's all about the number of novels here! Very easy to fall into the trap of C here, if the number of novels as a factor is ignored.

pierjoejoe · Answer

we can calculate if AGENT>PUBLICIST

AGENT = 15% R
PUBLICIST = 5% R + F

15% R > 5% R + F 
so we need to find if

10%R > F
R > 10F

(1) gives F but not R NOT SUFFICIENT
(2) gives the mean of R^ but not F, NOT SUFFICIENT

(1)(2) we have F and the MEAN of R --> R^. meaning that the total ROYALTIES are equal to the mean of the ROYALTIES R^ times the number of royalties that we can call N
10%R > F
10% * (R^) * (N) > F
10% * 3500 * (N) > 2000

we DO NOT know how much N is and we DO NOT have any restriction on the number N such that we can find a unique answer to the initial question (PLUG any N and find different answers). THUS (1)(2) is NOT SUFFICIENT

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A novelist pays her agent 15% of the royalties she receives from her

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