Edited the section on advances, and added new material
*******
Advances
Legitimate publishers pay advances. So does PA, which allows it to proudly claim that “We treat our authors the old-fashioned way : we pay them”. The difference is that the advances from legitimate publishers can be anything from hundreds to thousands of dollars, even for first-time authors. As Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware said in an
analysis of PA’s contract,
An advance is a demonstration of the publisher's financial and business commitment to the success of a book project. The higher the advance, the greater stake the publisher has in the book’s success.
PA’s advance is all of $1.
Why does PA pay only a dollar advance?
PA does its best to ape commercial publication, while simultaneously spending as little as possible on authors. Since many authors are aware that commercial publishers pay advances, PA also pays a token amount that allows its authors to feel that they are now commercially published. Most of these authors will be unaware that in commercial publication, advances are routinely negotiated so as to obtain good terms for writers, so they accept PA’s
fig leaf without question.
The $1 amount may also factor into the viewpoints of authors who speak positively of PA, or refuse to criticize it despite being aware of PA’s nature or failings. A
landmark experiment in cognitive psychology, carried out in 1959, had two groups of students performing a dull and repetitive task (turning pegs, filling trays and emptying them). The first group was paid $20 for their performance and second $1. Afterwards, the experimenter asked each subject to fill in for an absent research assistant and persuade a new student that the task had actually been interesting.
Later, when the groups were asked to rate the task, the group which had been paid $1 rated this activity more highly than the group which had been paid $20. The experimenters reasoned that $20 was enough justification for the students in the second group to lie. But the first group had to reconcile the fact that they had lied for $1 with the natural belief that they were not liars. The $1 alone was not enough reason to lie.
Therefore they (subconsciously) decided they had not been lying when they persuaded the new student that filling and emptying trays was fun. The task was actually a pleasant and engaging one, and they had liked it. This example of dealing with
cognitive dissonance may parallel the PA authors’ eagerness to convince others that they are having a wonderful experience.
It might also explain why a few more experienced authors – who are professionally published and who know the difference between commercial publication and a vanity press – do not speak out against PA even off the closely monitored PAMB. They also
criticize anyone who does.
There might be a downside to the crusade… you folks will grow old in your attempt to rescue and rehabilitate floundering writers.
When PA authors praise or defend their press, they mention that it has printed their books with no upfront charges, but they don’t bring up the advance in this context. This suggests that they may know it’s a token. It’s still an important part of the game, though, one more piece in the mosaic that mimics reality, not to mention something tangible that can be touched or framed. And it enables PA authors to feel that they may qualify for contests which
rule out vanity presses.
The literary awards only consider professionally published books for which the author was paid by the publisher.
So how do PA authors feel about this advance?
I was excited when I signed my contract and recieved my $1.00. -->
Link
I’m willing to bet that if any PA author worked for a week teaching algebra, or flipping burgers, or flying an aircraft, and was subsequently paid $1 for it, there would be lawsuits. Also, that author would never work for such a company again. But when it comes to a manuscript, they’re willing to let it go for a dollar, because they don’t think, “I’m selling the rights of first publication of my book for $1”, and therefore they’re
very pleased.
last week i recieved my 1.00 advance I put it in a frame and hung it on my wall. HEY HEY HEY I AM AN AUTHOR, YIPPPPPPPPIIIIIIEEEEEEE
At first I thought that the eager acceptance was due to the thrill of being accepted for publication. That’s definitely a cause, but it’s also due to inexperience. Most PA authors, rather than thinking of this process as a business transaction where they sell the rights of publication and are then paid appropriately for it, see publication as
a charitable act, describing PA as “a company that was nice to publish your book without you paying a penny.”
Considering that PA refers to its miniscule advance as “symbolic” (symbolic of what?), I wouldn’t be surprised if PA eventually reduces its advance to fifty cents, or even to one shiny new symbolic penny. Few if any of its authors are likely to protest.
An advance which could only buy you a meal if you ate off McDonalds’s Dollar Value Menu is bad enough in principle, but is unbelievable when you consider that
any book gets this little. $1 is the across-the-board average. Write a poorly spelled twenty-page poetry book, $1; write an exhaustively researched and edited historical fiction doorstopper, $1. As a result, all PA authors are on an equal footing with each other, and are never prompted to wonder if they could negotiate a higher advance from their publisher for a better book.
Anyone who says there’s something wrong with being paid a pittance for their book will be outnumbered by authors expressing
joy and gratitude.
It doesn't matter what others think of our $1 advance. We'll keep on enjoying it! Who cares what they think.
I think you should have received a higher advance. You have just sold the right of first publication of your book for a dollar. But $1/manuscript is a cheap price, when you consider that PA can now claim to pay advances like an actual publisher. And when PA casts these crumbs upon the waters, most authors return them in loaf fashion. What do the authors get in return, though?
)
