As I recall, there was a kerfluffle in the aughts when Baen, faced with a short term cash crunch because royalty expenses were higher than planned for (higher than expected sales and no, I don't know why revenue from higher sales would not precede royalty cost payout), had to prioritize who got paid first. Again, AIR, Jim Baen decided to go with paying his buddies first over paying the high earning authors first. This went over poorly with the high earners.