What is the average advance for a book

The average author does not get a huge advance like that. Naturally, there are exceptions to this rule. However, it would be unwise and unrealistic with regard to your financial planning to assume you will be that rare, unknown author who garners a multimillion-dollar advance.

Most publishers offer the advance they project your book will earn back in the first six to twelve months after publication. After that, you have the cost of self-promotion, which can include attending a conference, investing in promotional items, or doing a mailing. Michael Kozlowski Editor in Chief Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years.

And the financial side of publishing can be opaque, unfair, and downright contradictory. Combined with the distinctly American habit of not wanting to sully talk of artistry with talk of money, this means that many people who want to make writing their full-time career have no idea how the money part of writing actually works.

In this TED talk I will answer some of the most common questions I get as a literary agent about the money side of things.

I will try not to make it too depressing. I have sold books for both more and less than those amounts, and to be fair, there are many genres where I can estimate a much smaller spread.

But the total advance depends on so many things, including the quality of the work, the sales potential of the work not the same thing! A book deal is not patronage for your sheer talent, or even direct compensation for the hours you have toiled to create the book. It is an advance against what the publisher thinks your book will earn.

The publisher takes a financial risk on your work. But you do have to sell that much in books to earn anything more on top of that.

You earn a percentage of each book sale, and that adds up against your total advance. When you earn more than that, you get royalties. Math incoming. There are different rates for different formats and you can negotiate higher royalty rates, to a point. There are many books that do not sell 4, copies and plenty of books that do. Your advance will be broken up into several payments, anywhere from two to four depending on how big your advance is, how you negotiate, etc.

Having your agent review and vet your contract, signing it, getting it countersigned by the publisher and waiting for the publisher to send your check can take several months. We can avoid both outcomes by not concerning ourselves with what is average and simply be happy for the advance we receive. In my unpubbed la-la land, I always thought any advance would be a nice gift, but not necessary to receive. Thanks for the tips!

I began writing 11 years ago to deal with a personal tragedy. Writing was one of the few, okay, the ONLY, outlet that I had to say what I wanted without having to couch my own feelings in order to spare others.

It is a raw deal to have to vent in a manner that makes someone else feel less awful about MY suffering. Having a chance to be anonymous was an enormous blessing, and I have my BFF to thank for introducing me to that community. Now, instead of writing about me, I write for me.

I write the fiction that I think will resonate with anyone who wants a second chance. I try to entertain and uplift my reader, and take her on a journey to a better understanding of herself and those around her. I plan to aim low for the advance and high for the long term benefits of having my name on many great stories. I would love to have my name up in font. I got sooooooo depressed, I gave up the idea of publication at that time.

I think, though, instead of the amount of the advance that I would be looking at right now if I had a specific manuscript in mind for now I am still writing to please myself more than for any other audience, so publication is on the horizon but not an immediate goal — more important than the advance is the typical number of books in a first run for a book from a new author.

Thank you for addressing this, Rachelle! With the earn-back question haunting the the grounds, I admit I would feel a little uncertain to get huge advances. At least under there was a pretty good track record of what the books were likely to sell like. But thanks for the post about it, Rachelle, it really does help people like me to have someone shine a light on the murky facts submerged in the water around us! Is the publisher for you or are you just another dollar sign? Will the invest more than money into you?

My primary goals in writing are artistic, but you asked about financial goals. Here are mine. If I am published the traditional way which is my preference , I would like to obtain two things: royalties and the possibility of getting another book published.

Of course both of these mean I need to write a quality manuscript and work like crazy to market it not just depend on the publisher to promote it. An advance would be nice, but since I am a worry wart, I would squirrel that money away in case I had to pay it back.

I completely agree. Getting paid is a bonus, not the end result. I prefer to have a middle range book contract advance…enough to make the publisher want to do more marketing, but not so much that it is hard to earn out. My agent will be best at the expertise in this.

I also care about who publishes it and other things about the contract. Money is not everything. Kinda like you gave here. When I got my publishing contract, it was a relief just to have a contract with a publisher that paid advances! The size of the advance plays no role in my decision to write for publication. I would be happy with any size advance.

I have no financial goals for any book I may publish. I just hope it sells and that the publisher is happy with it. There are exceptions, of course. As a professional technical writer, I do expect to be compensated for anything I do write. At this point, the size of an advance does not change whether or not I write with the hope and goal of publication.

If, hoping when, I get published, my financial goal for my book would be that my advance would earn out. Anything beyond that will be icing on the proverbial cake. I do not want to be a money pit. My financial goals are simple enough. But I think those days may be gone unless one is already selling books by the barrel.

Realistically, I would like to earn enough to supplement my current salary. Although hugely disappointed, I was happy to get the book out! The only upside? I earned out very quickly.

I imagine I would take the advance and invest it in marketing the book, so the money only means how much I can spend on that. There seem to be pros and cons both ways in terms of dollar amounts. Hmm, I wonder if there are any bored marketing students who want to do an unpaid internship or project? That might be a great way to build my platform! How fun is this? Honestly, they could have paid me nothing and I would have done it.

The idea of getting my work out there to the masses at no cost to myself…. But advances are fun. I agree with PJ. I have no expectation of making money from my fiction writing. It does not drive me at all. I write because it is a passion. Any income I derive is icing on the cake. Thanks for a great post, Rachelle. This is a great question and a great subject we authors should ponder on. Why do we write in the first place?

Is it only to gain a big advance? If so, are we worthy of our craft? And so I have answered your question with more questions of my own. I only wish for my writing to bring hope and joy to my readers. If so, my job is done and God will give the increase. Or in modern jargon — a paycheck.

Having received a large advance for my first book, The Scent of God, and not meeting projected sales, I was much happier with a smaller advance that earned back in a month and getting royalty checks. Beryl, I always appreciate getting your perspective here. And your first book remains one of my all time favorites!