How long before the check comes?

They do quarterly or bi-annual statements, those statements will have the checks if it passed your advance amount. If say you had a 5k advance, you have to make that much in royalties before you see a check.

After that it will show up with your statement that will show you how many books are sold. There will be some sales that are reserved as returns for up to a year, those are books that bookstores purchased but may not have actually sold yet, and they may later return them or exchange them for other books so that would come back off your sales.

I assume you're talking about the advance check?

For me, it took four weeks after the contract was signed. It took a month to get the contract finalized. So...roughly two months after my verbal deal.

It depends on the publisher, too, and when the offer is made. My contracts took three months, but that included the end-of-year holidays. The check took another month to show up.

But if you're lucky, and you don't have many edits to make, the D&A check might not take long after the signing check. (This all depends on your contract.)

jthome123 said:

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a "D&A" check? Delivery and acceptance? Also, do these things usually come in thirds? Sorry for all the questions. I just don't want to be a pest with the agent and/or the publisher...

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Sorry. I forgot to take off my cryptic hat.

Yes, D&A is delivery and acceptance. Your contract will spell everything out, but in general, you get 1/3 on signing, 1/3 on delivery & acceptance, and 1/3 on publication.

If you landed a multi-book deal, the signing payments for all the books are lumped together into one check, but then the D&A and publication checks are for each separate book.

My first check came about two and a half months after the verbal deal--a couple of weeks after the contract was finalized. Funny part was, because of the length of time it took to finalize the contract and because my editor was working extra fast to prepare for maternity leave, I had the D&A payment just a few weeks after the first check came.

I hate to add a month to your outside target, but for me it was five months between the verbal offer and the first check. It was a two-book deal, though, so the check was a nice size.

Nancy Holzner

How long does it take to get paid if you don't have a deal yet? Or an agent?

Ouchies, guess I'll keep the day job.

Phaeal said:

How long does it take to get paid if you don't have a deal yet? Or an agent?

Ouchies, guess I'll keep the day job.

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Well most authors don't ditch their day jobs for quite awhile, if ever.

Let's see. For my first deal it was April with the verbal offer, and the contracts arrived at the beginning of September. October for the check.