Advance / Royalty / How to get more?

Wendy said:

Since I could not find an agent to rep my book, I am hoping some will offer advice.

I am a first-time author.

I was just offered publication by Leisure Books, and would like to know how far I can push Don D'Auria in our negotiations.

Don offered me $2,500 advance + 4% royalties on a mass market paperback, cover price $6.99. Genre: Suspense.

Looks like a boilerplate?

I understand that Leisure pays low advances, but am wandering how much I can get out of them? Is Leisure capable of paying 8%?

Any experience dealing with Don?

Whatever you can share,

Wendy

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Have you tried approaching agents since you got an offer?
It would surprise me that no agent would offer to assist you when you have an offer on the table.

Wendy said:

Since I could not find an agent to rep my book, I am hoping some will offer advice.

I am a first-time author.

I was just offered publication by Leisure Books, and would like to know how far I can push Don D'Auria in our negotiations.

Don offered me $2,500 advance + 4% royalties on a mass market paperback, cover price $6.99. Genre: Suspense.

Looks like a boilerplate?

I understand that Leisure pays low advances, but am wandering how much I can get out of them? Is Leisure capable of paying 8%?

Any experience dealing with Don?

Whatever you can share,

Wendy

Click to expand...

Leisure relased a hardcover of mine in paperback, but it wasn't because I wanted them to do so.

4% royalties ought to be a crime. If you've been offered a contract, you should now be able to find an agent. I would not sign a $2,500 + 4% royalty deal. Ever. Now that you have an offer, start calling agents. Most should take the call, and it's very likely one or more will ofer to help in some way.

Wendy, that's a bad, bad boilerplate deal. Even 6% is low, so yes I think you should go for 8%.

I Pm'd you with some other information.

Triceratops

Wendy,

May I suggest sending a PM to Uncle Jim; he might have some ideas.

Just a thought,
Good luck
Congratulations on the acceptance,
Chac

Thanks for your replies.

I should have mentioned that I did contact 50 (exact number) agents immediately after receiving the offer. Initially sent out emails. Most agents replied declining to represent. I then telephoned those that did not reply. In the end I received 46 rejections (4 agents are at the London book fair). These were targeted agents who represent suspense / mystery / thrillers. About 20 were AAR. Most said the premise was not their cup of tea, others were too busy to bother.

Initially I contacted over 300 agents before receiving Leisure's offer.

I can no longer procrastinate this with Leisure, it's been a month now since the offer came. Seems to me a dead end with the agent thing. Need to tell Don what I want.

So, realistically, what can I expect to receive from Leisure? Can I put my foot down on 8%? More? Less?

Thanks!

Wendy

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Does anyone but me find this to be absurd?

Are agents only after the bottomline, and nothing else?

This author needs representation, with an offer on the table (which indicates at least to me that she has writing skills and is able to deliver a finished product,) and still has 50 rejections?

Seems to me like the agents are running the game now.

15% of $2,500 is not a lot of money for the work an agent would have to put in

waylander said:

15% of $2,500 is not a lot of money for the work an agent would have to put in

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The agent also gets 15% of royalties, which can be substantial. I suspect it's more that these agents do not wish to deal with Leisure than anything else.

I do find it odd that no agent would at least offer to handle the contract. It basically takes one phone call for an agent to determine whether or not things can be negotiated, and if they can, it is not usually a length process.

I don't even see how the premise matters in the least, or why you would even mention it to an agent after a contract has been offered? It wouldn't matter to any agent I know. This is a done deal, not a book where the premise matters. The agent isn't going to sell the novel. That's already been done. The agent is simply going to try negotiating the contract.

And at least 90% of the agents I know would certainly have time to negotiate a single contract with Leisure.

There's something more to this than meets the eye.

I have to agree with James. I know many start-up agencies that would jump at this, including my own. I've already offered a referal, but I should have read the book beforehand. But I can't see where that is even neccessary because a contract has already been laid down. Leisure dosen't look like a bad outfit at all, so I don't think that's the problem here. Something below the surface.Tri

Tri,

just out of curiosity (as someone who is currently looking for an agent!), who is your agency?

Thanks!
David

David, I anwered that in your rep file.

Tri

comments back in your rep file. Thanks!!

ask for at least 8% for mass market pbk, not much you can do about advance since youre first time author and i agree that most agents probably are not interested in a small deal like this with a new author. i mean with 4% at 6.99 cover you would need to sell a s---load of books to make some decent money and books like that wont make you a household name either so you may get stuck not getting fortune or fame, but if all you care about is getting the publishing credit than its your decision to make