What's an acceptable advance?

Hi, i got a publishing contract a couple of days ago. I'm a first time author, and I've now got an agent looking things over, but...I'm curious...would £10k for a one book deal be considered average/good/bad for an advance?

Obviously more money is nice, but my main concern is to ensure the publisher is going to get behind this book and support it, and I have heard the greater the advance the more likely a publisher is to ensure the book is a success by pumping up the marketing...if for no other reason than to ensure they make the money on the advance back!

You do hear of 1st timers hitting 6 figures, but I'm guessing that's immensely rare.

Anyway, my first post here...hopefully first of many. I found this forum whilst looking for advice on contracts and advances etc. It's good to see quite a lot of posting activity.

That's a pretty decent advance for a first novel. Maybe even a bit above average. Pumping up marketing won't ensure success. If it did, the publish would pump up marketing on every novel.

What will ensure success is that you've written a book people not only want to read, but want to talk about.

If you're a new writer then 10k is quite reasonable. The publisher sets the advance to match the expected first printing run. If the book then becomes a hit, the later royalties for subsequent printings will pick up the remainder of the slack.

So my idea is that you may be okay here.

Is your book genre (SF, fantasy, mystery, etc.) or mainstream?

thriller....in the same ballpark as Harlan Coben, Dan Brown type stuff.

This might amuse you:

The Real World Book Deal Descriptions

I believe, if I have my exchange rates right, that is "not bad" with an approving nod.

yes...that seems about right. A very amusing read btw. cheers.

Garpyboy wrote:

Hi, i got a publishing contract a couple of days ago. I'm a first time author, and I've now got an agent looking things over, but...I'm curious...would £10k for a one book deal be considered average/good/bad for an advance?

Click to expand...

You're asking here? Your agent, who knows what you've written and (barring absolute incompetence) knows what the market is like for books like yours, ought to be the one whose opinion matters to you and whose guidance you rely on. If you aren't comfortable with that, why have an agent?

With a couple of notable exceptions, who aren't based in your country (if the pounds sign is any indicator), this is just the peanut gallery. Good place to brag; probably a bad place to rely on for specific business advice at this level.

When I was last published the standard advance for a novel, until you had proven you could pull in more than that, was $1,500 and that is what I got.

It is still better to get a low advance and high sales than to get a high advance and low sales.

One of the biggies is: How fast is your next book coming out and how big a seller will it be? It is not uncommon to do have a big seller, even a blockbuster, then the next novel or so doesn't do very well.

The "meh" deal is likely the only one a first time novelist will get from a mainstream publisher. $5,000-$10,000 is the norm, and anything above 20K means you're probably blackmailing someone.

yes....2nd book syndrome, that's a gotcha.

Listen, if it came across as bragging...I'm sorry. It's a tricky question to ask without it coming across like that, but it was the first forum i came across with the search that seemed to offer plenty of freely given advice.

As for my agent...it's early days yet. I don't really know him that well. Anyway...from the research and responses, it seems the amount is about right.

when people ask how much i want to make on my first book, i always tell them ten grand for the genres i like to write in, which coincidentally are probably some of the higher paying ones. for years i've had it in my mind this, or damn close to it, is the only reasonable advance for mainstream markets like fantasy, romance, mystery.... (truth be told i'd take almost anything, lol.)

while on the topic, what if what you've got is a fantasy trilogy? is that three separate advances as they get published or one lump sum? say you would get ten grand for one ms, do you get thirty for all three or, say, twenty?

I would guess that's negotiable...if you have a good agent.

I'm generally intrigued about the whole advance issue...ie: whether a huge advance for an unproven author is a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, having a huge advance I suspect would galvanise the publisher into making sure the book does the business...after all, the editor who has signed up the book will certainly want to be sure the money he 'spent' on behalf of his employer is recouped...that's surely going to help when it comes to haggling for marketing spend. On the other hand, having a huge advance that doesn't recoup can mean your reputation as a writer is marked....and that kind of thing sticks. It almost certainly means your publisher won't be asking for any more books off of you.