storytelling

InternetWritingJournal.com has a list of the best author blogs, according to them. I'm not on the list, and I'm okay with that mostly because (1) I had never even heard of this organization (2) there's lots of good blogs on the list but also lots I've never come across before (3) really, I don't mind. I'm happy to sit here in the dark. By myself. Really, don't think anything of it.

Going over this list there are some blogs I like and try to read regularly: Monica Jackson, Tess Gerritsen, Alison Kent, Paperback Writer. Others I read only rarely, some I gave up reading because they irritate me. Some blogs I read often and think a lot of aren't on the list, so I'm in good company. Here in the dark.

Interrupted to say: so I went and crawled around the IWJ website for a while and there's some interesting industry news on the front page. IWJ is associated apparently with WritersWrite (what does that mean, anyway? I always feel like I missing something clever, but it does sound a bit circular to my ear), another organization I don't know anything about. But you know what? If I spend all my time getting to know all these wonderful online communities and news organizations, I won't meet my deadline, and that would be Bad. Very Bad.

So back to work. But first: I've got this photo I want to post because it's completely taking over my imagination, but before I do that I'd like to take requests. Questions about my stuff (old or new), about research or craft issues, the business, whatever. I ask this because somebody told me the other day that she loved THE BAT, THE KNEE, THE BICYCLE HELMET, THE HUSBAND AND DICK, THE DOCTOR, which of course featured my mathematician husband. I said, you should comment on things you like, I'll try to hit that note more often.

My point: Speak up, or I'll just go ahead with this photo. Mwah ha ha ha.

Posted by at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (0)

*STAR*Antonetta, Susanne. A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World. Putnam/Tarcher, $24.95 (1-58542-382-3)

Antonetta's galvanizing first book, Body Toxic (2001), marked the emergence of a poetic and frank chronicler of life lived in a polluted world. She now offers a kinetic, impressionistic, and philosophical inquiry into neurodiversity, a term for "people hardwired to think differently from the norm." [...] Once again, Antonetta alters our perception of ourselves and our place in the biosphere as she makes unexpected connections, traverses rarely charted territory, articulates provocative observations, and leaves readers pondering a startling question, is neurodiversity as essential to life as biodiversity? **Donna Seaman

Posted by at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sara G asked about the 10% I mentioned in the last post in my example of royalties per book sold. She thought the figure seemed low.

Well, sorry to say that it's pretty much on target.

If you're talking about a hardcover book, the author generally gets 10% on the first 1 to 250,000 25,000 copies sold, 12% on the next 250,000 25,000 and 15% on anything sold above 500,000 50,000 copies -- after the advance is paid out, of course. And these figures are negotiable. I would guess Stephen King's numbers are better.

For softcover, the range is much greater, usually someplace between 6% and 10% of the cover price, again with increases as the number of sales climbs.

This probably is pretty sobering for those who are hoping to make a living writing fiction. A small ray of sunshine: you know how the big box stores sometimes sell new hardcovers for 10-30% off the cover price? That doesn't hurt the author, who still gets a percentage of the listed cover. That 30% discount comes out of the publisher's and distributor's chunk of the profits.

Another good thing: your novel is sold in North American, you get an advance. If your agent is working hard, you'll also have a shot at foreign markets, and for each of those that buys the rights to publish your novel (after translating it, of course) you'll get another advance. Usually much smaller than the US advance (and you'll pay a bigger percentage to a foreign agent, as well), but still something. If a novel sells to three or seven or twenty foreign markets, the money adds up.

Homestead has been translated into ten foreign languages, including Chinese and Catalan. Into the Wilderness has been translated into (I think) eight, all European.

Edited to add:

Alison pointed me to Lee Goldberg's blog, which quoted this post. To his post there is a comment by Laurie King, which I include here. Here's what Laurie said about the royalty information above:

"Man, this is one writer who REALLY needs a better agent. I can only hope it's a typo--a more typical royalty division (for regularly discounted books sold in the US market) is along the lines of 10 percent for the author on the first 5000 books sold, 12 1/2 percent on the next 5000, and after that 15 percent. Or more if, as you say, your numbers mean you can dictate to your publisher what you want. Then 7 1/2 percent on trade paperback, 10 percent on mass market."

First: those were typos (now fixed). Second: they aren't my numbers (I do have a great agent). Third: I can't find my notes on where I got the damn numbers to start with. I will assume that Laurie's right, in which case I apologize profusely for making the situation sound worse and more depressing than it already is. Finally: the numbers were off, but the general way it all works (advances, pay out, etc) is on target.

Now I have to (a) feed the people and (b) the puppy boys and (c) I have to go cut up pieces of paper so I can draw one out of a hat. Hopefully I'll get that done sometime this evening.

Posted by at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

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.

Posted by at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)