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what exactly is so royal about royalties?
It's a strange word, isn't it? As if publishing a book put a crown on an author's head.
The money an author makes from a given book usually comes in two ways. The advance is the upfront money, 5 or 10 or 200 thousand dollars, or, occasionally, more. The book is published, the book starts to earn (hopefully), but the author doesn't get any money until the advance is "earned out" -- that is, if author X is supposed to get (for example) 10% on a cover price of $20, and she received $10,000 as an advance, she won't get anymore money until 5,000 copies of the book have sold.
If she takes the $10,000 advance on an unwritten book and can't write it? The money has to be repaid.
If she gets an advance of $200,000 and the book only sells a total of 1,000 copies? She doesn't have to pay back the advance, but the publisher is unlikely to buy another book from her.
This topic came to mind because Alison Kent posted about her own royalities and earnings. It was an interesting post, but it was really the comments that surprised me. A lot of people write hoping to be published, and they want to be published... why? For the fame? To prove that they can? To share a story? To make money? All of the above, in many cases, no doubt.
And then I'm always surprised that many aspiring authors don't understand how the money works. A publisher offers you a contract, and an advance. The amount of the advance doesn't have to do with how good the novel is, or how much they like it. A million dollars does not equal an A+. The advance is their best guess on how many copies of the book they can sell. No matter how much the acquiring editor loves your novel, the publishing house does not want to overpay you. End of story.
After reading Alison's post I got to wondering about my own books, and I realized I don't know how much money any of the books has actually made. When the statements come, I file them away in the big pile of stuff that I don't want to look at. My agent knows all this, so if I really want to hear numbers I call her up.
I hasten to add that I do know how much money I make a year in total, all royalties and advances, domestic and foreign. Since I've started publishing novels in 1999, my annual income has fluctuated between 400,000 and 170,000, with the average around 220,000. Something to remember: this will not last forever. Sooner or later, this well will dry up.
The information about advances and pay outs becomes more important if there's a new contract being negotiated. Publisher X says: well, we'd like to offer you more but her last novel didn't pay out... or Agent X says: look, she's had four novels pay out within a year each, you've got to do better.
And still, I don't know and don't care to know, because it would get in the way of actually writing the damn book. Which I have to go do, right now.
November 15, 2005 08:24 AM
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Comments
Thanks, you've satisfied my curiosity on an issue I've wondered idly about for years (re: whether you have to pay back the advance if the book tanks).
Posted by: Rachel at November 15, 2005 10:58 AM
10% of the selling price doesn't seem like very much...after the advance is met, will that percentage increase? Just curious.
Posted by: sara g at November 15, 2005 01:47 PM
Thanks for being so candid. As an aspiring writer I owe it to myself to understand--and be realistic about--how the money side of publishing works.
Posted by: Alex at November 19, 2005 06:31 AM