*sigh*
You guys ARE aware that we are a six month old epublisher, right? Tell you what--why don't you take a look around the world of digital publishing. Why don't you find me another e-publisher that is of comparable age, with a comparable catalog or a comparable product and a comparable royalty rate. When you find one that's paying out advances, come back and let me know--and let me know how much those advances are too.
When, on the other hand, you DON'T find that epublisher (because there isn't a six month old epublisher with over 200 books already published paying out advances to authors that I'm aware of), think again about the logical fallacy you've got going on here.
If you've read anything prior to this point in the thread, you will realize that I will not take Musa into territories that might bite us in the ass before I am convinced we are ready. For example, Musa will NOT go into print until we have enough of a financial cushion to take the hit, before we have distribution set up, before we have a marketing and promotional plan in place to get our books into brick and mortar stores. Why? Because that would be stupid. So many epubs have swirled down the drain of death for jumping into print.
If a writer is not content with a 50% royalty rate and wants an advance, I'm sure there are plenty of other options for their publishing needs. Right now, the risk is entirely Musa's. I have no intention of increasing that risk when we're still so young. I mean--surely, you realize what we're putting into each book, right? We're paying for cover art, interior design, editing, line editing, and formatting. We're paying for publicity and marketing. We're paying for website and IT costs. We're paying salaries. We're paying for ISBN registration. We're paying for everything.
I'm sorry but that makes no sense. You really think it makes more sense for an author NOT to get money up front? That might make sense for you (since you're the publisher), but I'm sure the author doesn't think they're "twiddling their thumbs" when they have the money in the bank and they've been paid for their writing.
For an epublished book? Sorry, but it makes perfect sense. Let's try this ONE MORE TIME--YOU CANNOT COMPARE AN E-PUBLISHER TO AN ESTABLISHED PRINT HOUSE. They're not the same thing at all. Authors turn to e-publishing for a number of reasons--and one of the main ones is for the monthly income. (Well, monthly at Musa at least. For some others, the income is quarterly) There are a couple of larger, older e-publishing houses that are paying token advances to some authors--but not many. Advances are not the normal status quo in digital publishing--
because they aren't necessary. Publishers give advances against future earnings when they contract a book. Why? Because it takes anywhere from a year and a half to two years to get a book into print and out onto the market, and another half a year to a year to get paid for the first sales of that book. In epublishing, that wait is substantially less. Most of Musa is only at four months between contract and publication.
Therefore we don't pay advances, and we don't need to do so. I don't have a darn bit of trouble being held to a standard that is normal within our particular sphere of publishing. But I'm most certainly NOT going to be held to a standard that doesn't apply to the digital sector of publishing and one that our competitors/peers aren't held to. Musa will start paying advances when the other thousands of epublishers start to pay advances.
I didn't think agents dealt with non-advance paying publishers. Could you tell us a couple of the agencies you're dealing with?
And you would be wrong.
And yes, I'll happily tell you a couple of the agencies I'm dealing with. Our most recent agented contracts were with the Veritas Agency and with Parkeast Literary Agency. I will not, however, go into the particulars of those deals--financial, contractual, or otherwise.
Seriously? I would much rather have an advance let it earn out. With no advance, authors are fronting your product and you're working with OPM (other people's money). Their work is tied up with no return unless you can sell it. It might be okay to test out, but I'd sure want to be able to revert rights in short order if it wasn't producing enough income. 50% of nothing is not very much.
And that's the way it works with large print publishers--small but older, well-established print publishers too. But that's not the way it works in electronic publishing. So I think it's probably best to compare apples to apples instead of apples to brussel sprouts.
Or, at the very least, to learn and understand the differences between a company like Musa and a company like Harlequin or Tor.