 For the Daydreamers:
Income as a Writer: Advances
Alright. So...I'm nervous to share this post. Why? Because it's about money, and money is a touchy subject for most people. Plus, I might get a call later today from an angry agent + publisher who don't want me sharing this kind of information. YOLO!
That said, since I am all about more transparency in this industry, I need to practice what I preach. On top of that, understanding advances is SO important to building a career, and it's one of those curtains that no one ever lifts.
So today, we're going to talk about advances in traditional publishing. How do they work? What is "normal?" And what are the pros/cons of large vs. small advances?
Disclaimer: Advances + income in traditional publishing are extremely varied. Because it's such a touchy subject, though, my knowledge is limited to what people tell me + my own experiences. If your experiences doesn't match mine, that doesn't mean yours is wrong!
Additionally, it's all relative. What I consider a lot of money, you might call peanuts -- and vice versa! So consider that not only while reading this post, but also when discussing advances with other authors.
> Let's start at the top. What is an advance? An advance is a set amount of money publishers pay an author for the right to publish their book(s). This money is paid prior to publication -- and note! Any publisher that makes YOU pay them is a scam. Period.
Sometimes, publishers will buy one book from an author. Sometimes, they will buy several. There is no "right amount of books" to sell to a publisher, and often the decision is based on lots of factors (the current market, how "commercial" the story is, whether it's a series or standalone, etc.).
When I sold Something Strange & Deadly in 2010, I was very lucky to sell 3 books up front. At that time, publishers wanted series/trilogies. So although I hadn't actually envisioned my book as a trilogy, you can bet I turned it in to one! To be contracted for three books was/is the dream. It means you're guaranteed an income for at least a few years (on a book per year schedule).
Nowadays, the market isn't as strong, and publishers are all about standalone books. As such, we're seeing a lot more single book deals. This isn't bad! It just means that we, the authors, are having to constantly work toward selling more, and the job security is much shorter term.
> What does it mean to earn out an advance? Earning out is when the book sells enough copies to essentially pay back the advance. So if a publisher bought your book for $10,000, then you would have to sell enough copies to make back that $10,000 for them before you start to see any royalties.
Now, the catch here is that for each book sold, only a percentage of the listed price goes toward that advance. That percentage is the royalty rate, so if your royalty rate is 8% on a book that costs $9.99, you would only make $0.79 per copy sold.
With that $10,000 avbance, you would have to sell 12,658 copies to earn out.
And for the record: that's a lot of copies. Most books won't sell that much in a year, much less in a lifetime. (So for all you authors out there like me, don't worry if you're not selling at such a rate. And for all of you who ARE, congrats!!)
> How are advances paid? This is where being a writer gets really wonky: the pay schedule is so weird and frankly, pretty unstable.
Typically, advances are divided into 3 installments and paid:
- Upon signing of the contract
- Upon "delivery and acceptance of the manuscript" (so when the book is deemed finished)
- Upon publication of the book
NOTE: Sometimes, publishers split the advance into 2 payments. I've also heard of it being split into 4.
As you can see, there's no real telling when each event will happen, so you can't rely on a regular income. This is also why banks do NOT like giving writers loans.
> But what about royalties? Assuming you've earned out your advance, then you will get royalty checks twice a year. If you're a popular author, these could be huge! For most of us...well, they're not -- IF we're even getting them at all.
Royalty checks also tend to taper off, since books don't stay popular forever. Don't EVER assume sales will remain steady, and don't EVER spend as if the sales will stay high forever.
Like, don't ever do that, okay? Seriously, I mean it.
> How are advances decided? There are a lot of factors at play, deal size starts with the editor who is hoping to acquire the project. The editor will make what's called a "P&L" (profit & loss statement -- here's a great breakdown) in which they project how many books they think will sell + how much it will cost to produce the book + how much to offer the author as an advance.
This then goes through several departments for approval. It might not survive all the departments, though -- in fact, books are often killed during those key meetings. An editor loves the book, but the rest of the team doesn't think it will sell in the current market.
If the editor (and others) think the book will sell A LOT, they'll offer a large advance. If they think it's a quieter book, then the advance will be lower. This has nothing to do with the quality of the book, of course, but more to do with the current trends, future market projections, and just the general reach/size of the publisher.
And of course, advances aren't always accurate predictors of success! More on that below!
One more thing: advances will go up, up, up if publishers are competing with each other to acquire a book. This might happen in an auction or sometimes publishers offer what's called a "pre-empt" -- a one-time offer intended to buy the book and keep it from going to other houses.
So what is a "normal" advance size? Honestly, there is no single answer to that. Every genre is different, every publisher is different, and deal sizes fluctuate along with the market.
Additionally, my research online has yielded HUGE variation in results. I frequently see the figure "$1,000-$5,000" listed as the average for a debut author's advance. I have no idea where that number came from, though (and as a scientist, I like hard sources).
Anecdotally, I've never heard of an advance that low (unless it's for shorter fiction). However, according to "the internet," this seems to be a more standard advance rate in the adult romance genre or from smaller presses.
That said, my experience is in YA, which does tend to favor large advances. Of course, what was normal in YA when I was first selling my series is NOT what's normal now. The advances have shrunk for debuts because the market has gotten much riskier.
And of course, what I consider large, you might consider small. It's all relative!
I found the figure "$38,000" listed as the average YA debut advance in this survey from Hannah Holt. But since it only surveyed 48 people, I wouldn't consider it very accurate. It also listed 20,000 copies as being a standard debut year sales rate.
Erm, no. That sales rate seems incredibly high to me. And I'm not just saying that because my own first series tanked! I'm basing this on what I know after speaking to many mid-list (average performing) authors. We'd be lucky to sell 20,000 copies over the course of a book's entire life!
On that note, $38,000 does seem like a fair evaluation for average YA advance. Although, remember that averages -- especially when there's only 48 people in a survey -- can be easily skewed by outliers (massive or tiny deals).
SO INSERT ME SHRUGGING HERE. The lack of transparency in this business means it's almost impossible to gauge what's normal. All I know for certain is that there does not seem to be a standard advance size across genres or publishers -- or even within genres or publishers.
The fact is that MOST authors must continue to work day jobs to support their families and pay their bills. Even people who make what I would consider "large" advances are hardly Scrooge McDuck-ing it.
But more on that below.
To really get into the nitty gritty of the money, I'm going to use my own books as an example. (Ugh, I feel sick sharing this info. Transparency, Sooz! Transparency!).
When I sold Something Strange & Deadly in 2010, it was during the time of "big advances" in YA. And, as mentioned, it was also the time of trilogies. Twilight and then The Hunger Games had catapulted the market, and publishers were buying YA books left and right.
I was very fortunate to sell 3 books for $60,000 per book. This was a huge amount of money to me (it still is!), and it allowed me to leave science and write full time. And frankly, I thought I was pretty hot shit and that my book was going to do really well.
HAHAHAHAHA. What actually happened is that when the book came out, it didn't sell. Like at all. I have not earned out my advance, and I likely never will. (More on that to come!)
Now, let's look at how my payments were given. Because I want you to see why, even though $60,000/book might sound like a ton (or it does to me!), it quickly shrinks.
I received $80,000 the first year because I signed 3 contracts. That means each book was divided into 3 installments of $20,000 payments. Because there were 3 books, I ended up with $60,000 for my "on contract" payment.
Later that same year, I received $20,000 for "delivery and acceptance" -- and that brought me to that 80K total.
$20,000(x3) for on contract + $20,000 for D&A = $80,000
That was a lot of money to me. And still is. I was very, very lucky indeed.
I do feel the need to point out, though, that I actually got less than most of the authors I was friends with at the time. Back then, this made me feel like I was somehow "less than" they were as a human. And then when my series went onto sell poorly...
Yeah, I really let that affect my self-worth. Which is ridiculous! The joyous elation I felt when the deal was first offered is what I ought to have felt the entire time.
MONEY IS RELATIVE, remember? And so is success! So for the love of god, please don't compare yourself, okay?
Ahem. Now back to the payments.
The second year, I received a total of $40,000. I got $20,000 when the book was published + $20,000 for "delivery and acceptance" of book 2. The third year, I received another $40,000 -- $20,000 when book 2 was published + $20,000 for "delivery and acceptance" of book 3.
The fourth year, I received $20,000 for the publication of book 3, and that was my income for the entire year. Which is still a lot of money, but definitely a steep drop off. (And also why banks don't like authors!)
So laid out, it looked like:
- 2011: $80,000
- 2012: $40,000
- 2013: $40,000
- 2014: $20,000
But -- and this is SUPER important -- YOU MUST ACCOUNT FOR TAXES + AGENTS. Agents take a 15% cut of the advance/royalties. They're worth every penny, but that can be a lot of money!
THEN, because I am self-employed, I pay a little over 30% in taxes. So my annual incomes actually looked more like:
- 2011: $47,600
- 2012: $23,800
- 2013: $23,800
- 2014: $11,900
That's a big difference in numbers, isn't it?
It's also not accounting for the massive costs that go into self-promotion and travel. The reality of publishing is that 99% of authors have to fund everything themselves, and phew! That adds up fast.
I also feel it's important to note that I am very lucky my husband's job has benefits. Most authors must ALSO carve out a chunk of their income to pay for health insurance, and that is a big expense. It's also something to consider if you're thinking about quitting your own day job to write full time.
Now, remember how I said my books didn't sell? Remember how I said that I won't ever earn out? On the one hand, that was okay! I mean, I still got that incredible income for a few years, and I truly cannot complain.
On the other hand, a book that doesn't sell hurts the author moving forward. This can actually be a pretty huge con. Large advances can harm a debut author in the long run if their books don't sell well.
Why? Because publishers can check an author's sales at any moment on Bookscan. All they have to do is type in my name, and they can see just how poorly SS&D has sold.
They can also see a rough estimate of my deal size in Publisher's Marketplace, so they know right away that my books underperformed.
Thus, when it came time for me to sell a new book, I was NOT a desirable product for publishers. I've talked about this at length before, but I truly thought my career as Susan Dennard was over before it had even begun. As such, I will be forever grateful to Whitney Ross and Tor Teen for taking a chance on Truthwitch. I honestly still don't know why they risked buying 4 books from me upfront, but I will love them forever because of it.
I sold Truthwitch + 3 sequels to Tor Teen at the very end of 2013 for $30,000 per book. I also sold Sightwitch to them in 2017 for $20,000.
So if you look at the payment schedule on that:
- 2014: $40,000 for signing the contract
- 2015: $10,000 (for delivery + acceptance of book 1)
- 2016: $10,000 (for publication of book 1) + $10,000 (delivery/acceptance book 2)
- 2017: $10,000 (for publication of book 2) + $13,333 (contract + d/a of Sightwitch)
Again, you have to remove 15% of the income here as part of agency fees + 30% for taxes. That leads to:
- 2014: $23,800 (+ the $11,900 I got for Strange & Ever After!)
- 2015: $5,950
- 2016: $11,900
- 2017: $13,883
I mean...it's not a lot of money. And again: I'm not trying to sound ungrateful or like I'm complaining -- lord knows I am not -- but I bet this isn't the income people imagine when they think of New York Times Bestselling authors!
Now, on the plus side, Truthwitch managed to sell well it's first year! YAY! Thank you, Misfits & Daydreamers! Thank you Witchlanders! We hustled and we made it happen! That's why I hit that bestseller list.
Those good sales during the first year also allowed me to earn out, which means I over-performed. This also means, I got my very first royalty check in late 2016. These aren't huge checks, mind you, and they get smaller and smaller every 6 months. But it IS a some more money coming in.
Windwitch took much longer to earn out, but it did just recently (yay!). Sightwitch is alas not even close, but I hope that maybe one day it will.
This is the nature of series, though -- most will sell fewer and fewer with each release. People buy book 1, but only the people who enjoyed it will read book 2. And only the people who enjoyed book 2 will read book 3...and so on and so forth.
This is also why piracy can be so, so harmful. My advances were strong, all things considered, but I'm hardly rolling in the dough over here. (Hence why I asked for a bit of help with maintaining the newsletter!)
Moving forward, I now have the benefit of having over-performed, which will look good when it's time to sell more books. And I am so, so, SO grateful for that. However, I can't get complacent! All it takes is one round of poor sales, and I will once more become toxic to publishers.
THAT SAID, I don't want to frighten any of you who are facing large advances that will never earn out. Publishers will start to make money off of your book long before you actually see any royalties. Royalty rates are notoriously low (8-12% on average), and those low rates help the publisher turn a profit.
(And this is also why many people have moved to self-publishing. They might have to foot the bill up front, but all that income is theirs!)
It's incredibly difficult to gauge whether or not your book is deemed a success for the publisher, and I urge you -- if you're worried -- to have a serious conversation with your agent about it. They will be better able to read your royalty statements (you get these twice a year, even if you haven't earned out) and assess how you're doing. Just because you think your book is doing terribly doesn't mean it actually is. You might even be making the publisher money, you just don't realize it!
So there you have it. The most transparent and terrifying post I've ever written. Huzzah. Now you know my income! Huzzah.
There is SO much more that goes on with regards to income, of course. There might be foreign sales, for example, that supplement. Or there might be your own expenses for travel and self-promo that eat away. But those are topics for another day.
Also, no matter what your own advances are, please remember that they don't reflect on the actual quality of your book. A big advance doesn't mean your book is amazing (or a guaranteed success) and a low advance doesn't mean your book is terrible and guaranteed to fail.
So like I said before: whatever you do, do NOT compare your advances or sales to other authors. That way lies misery, and it won't help you maintain a longterm career. Yes, it is good to analyze and assess advances and sales for business purposes, but try to stay objective when you do so.
We all want to write for the long haul, and being objective + understanding the ups and downs of the biz + being smart with our wonky incomes is the only way to do so.
I hope you've learned something! And as always, feel free to email me -- be it about your own personal experiences or any questions you might have. ❤️
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