I'm sure there was a better way to title this thread, so my apologies. I've never written a non-fiction book, but I might be in a position to do so. So I was wondering, if you were to write someone's firsthand experiences, what would be a customary split in advances and/or royalties between you and your source?
ETA: I would think that it would be customary for them to get something, but I really have no idea what. If I were to take a stab at a guess, it would be anywhere between 10 and 50%. So I'm really just looking for a more specific range to go on. Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated--I'm supposed to speak with this guy over the next few days, and I'm sure he'll want to know.
Thanks so much in advance.
It depends.
If it's going to be your name on the book, and your name alone, then you would usually get all of the money. Reporters don't share their pay with the people involved in the stories they report, and neither should you.
If you're going to ghost-write the book for this person then yep, they would get all the income from the book but you, as the ghost, would usually get a flat fee paid by the publisher. If you don't have a deal for the book, and are agreeing to write it without that deal in place, be very very careful. I have heard of far more disasters under these circumstances than I have heard of successful collaborations.
Any suggestions on how I get the information he has to offer when he's on the other side of the country, doesn't do emails, refuses to even own a computer, and wants to do the entire thing over the telephone? He's been interviewed before, by other writers and they did it all by phone, and so he wants to do it the same way with me. I told him that was when he was only to be a small part of a book, but he's stubborn and I don't think I can budge him on this point. This is gonna be a bear. He's sitting on what could be a great book, but I'm having a helluva time figuring how I'm gonna do this. He talks a mile a minute, rambles from one (admittedly interesting inside experience--like the time he alone saw one superstar musician beat the hell out of another superstar musician because he was killing himself with dope) to another, and I am a slow typist. I guess I could record our telephone conversations--actually, maybe that would be the best way left to me. It would have just been so much easier, and structured, if I could have just hit him with directed questions by email. Had one thread open for our Q&A, and another for us to discuss everything else. I want to do this.
If the only way he'll work with you is to talk on the phone then you agree to that. You buy a digital voice recorder and a little gizmo which plugs into the phone socket to connect that recorder to, and you record ALL your phone conversations with him. Then you get hold of a foot-pedal which allows you to stop and start the recording at will, and you listen to it and transcribe, or you listen to it and paraphrase. It works. It's clunky at first but you'll get used to it.
If I were you, though, I'd be extremely cautious. He already sounds like hard work, and you've not even started yet. Get everything agreed before you do any work at all. He might well be assuming that you'll write the book, it will be published, and then he will earn a fortune. Get a good lawyer to draw up a contract between the two of you, make sure you are absolutely clear on his and your expectations, and make sure you are protected. Make sure you have a good lawyer to hand to check over the ms once you've written it, just in case you've written yourself into a dangerous corner. There are more ways for this to go wrong than you can even imagine, and you really don't want to be tangled up in litigation over it, as it could last for years.