Al, you forgot to subtract from that the 10-15 percent you
have to pay your blood-sucking agent... I'm sorry,
"blood-sucking" was a typo, I meant to type "dedicated,
trustworthy, hard-working", but it just keeps coming out
"blood-sucking"...
--Dave Z.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Allan Guthrie"
<allan@...> wrote:
>
> Authors generally get an advance (a non-refundable
sum), in
expectation of
> royalties (a percentage of the cover price). A good
agent (or wise
author)
> will try to negotiate an escalator, so that (loose
example), on
trade
> paperback sales of over 4000 copies the royalty rate
rises from 7.5
percent
> to 10 percent and over 10000 copies it might rise to
12.5 percent.
Some
> publishers are agreeable to this, and others aren't.
An escalator
offsets,
> slightly, the increasingly prevalent 'deep discount'
clause which
overrides
> previously agreed royalty rates on occasions where
the publisher
supplies
> books to retail outlets at high discounts (much of
the time in the
UK, where
> book discounting is pernicious). If the advance is
paid back, the
authors
> get cheques twice a year for any subsequent sales.
There are
various other
> bonuses that can be built in -- again, depending on
the publisher.
>
> In the UK, authors are also compensated by library
loans (a few
pence each
> time a book is borrowed). Authors can also be
compensated by rights
sales:
> audio, film, foreign language, etc.
>
> It's very hard to say what the average
noir/hardboiled author would
earn on
> a single book, since there are so many variables.
But the average
advance
> for a first novel in the US is reputed to be around
$4K these days.
The
> average advance paid to authors (new and
established) in the UK
last year
> was £4K (around $8K). Sadly, even with those
unimpressive figures,
most
> advances don't earn out.
>
> Al
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mburch5717" <mburch5717@...>
> > For instance is there any feel for what the
average noir or
hardboiled
> > author would earn on a book that isn't a
blockbuster? When you do
have
> > a blockbuster or at least something that sells
well, how is that
> > defined in terms of what the author is
compensated and how many
books
> > are sold? By blockbuster or best-seller I would
assume we're
talking
> > about an Elmore Leonard or Michael Connelly
novel vs someone who
writes
> > a good novel but who doesn't have huge
sales?
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Jan 2008 EST