Advance + Royalties v. No Advance + HIGHER Royalties

I'd take the one that gives me guaranteed money in hand plus some if sales go higher versus the one that depends 100% on sales.

Agree with Maggie. Take the bird in the hand.

csmalerich said:

I was offered two options for contract: $2000 advance + 17% royalties, or no advance + 20% royalties. This will be my first long-form professional sale (outside small press). Have others had this option offered? What did you go with, and what do you think in hindsight?

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The first sounds better regardless, but I'd clarify the royalty situation -- on what? What format? In perpetuity or is there some kind of staged thing?

csmalerich said:

I was offered two options for contract: $2000 advance + 17% royalties, or no advance + 20% royalties. This will be my first long-form professional sale (outside small press). Have others had this option offered? What did you go with, and what do you think in hindsight?

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Unfortunately, I know nothing about this industry, zero experience dealing with publishers. In the film world we generally try to negotiate as much as possible upfront and don't count on seeing any back end. How are the royalties defined - is this 20% of any revenue received by the publisher or 20% of profits remaining after expenses? And is this just domestic book publishing rights, or are they also selling some other ancillary or foreign rights on your behalf?

If both of these were coming from the same publisher, then the first offer without question, since 70% of books don't earn out their advance. But different publishers might have different levels of marketing potential, so there's that to consider.

Questions from someone who knows next to nothing about book contracts so keep that in mind.

Does the advance need to be paid back if book sales fail?

Do you need the advance? (To me that is an overriding question.)

Do you have confidence in the book?

Will the publisher work equally hard if no advance was paid?


And a question for our experienced members: Is 17-20% average for royalties?

And are these contracts negotiable? [Wondering if male authors negotiate while females don't, like the gender trend of asking for raises in the working world.]

I have exactly two contracts under my belt, so don't take my experience as overall truths.

MaeZe said:

Does the advance need to be paid back if book sales fail?

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I've always been told this is one of those myths that flies around about publishing but isn't true (or hasn't been true for a long, long time). Personally, I wouldn't be inclined to sign with a publisher who did this.

MaeZe said:

Do you have confidence in the book?

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This, unfortunately, won't have any influence over how well it does, no matter the publisher's contributions. (If all it took was faith in our work, we'd all be millionaires! )

MaeZe said:

Will the publisher work equally hard if no advance was paid?

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I was told by my former agent that publishers are inclined to pay more attention to books they've paid for ahead of time. I have no idea if it's true, but it does make some sense. As a writer, I don't mind having the publisher have a bit more skin in the game.

MaeZe said:

And a question for our experienced members: Is 17-20% average for royalties?

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Depends on whether it's gross, net, or after other expenses (besides the advance). It's higher than I got on print from a big 5, and lower than I got on audiobooks and ebooks (although ebook royalties were calculated on sale price rather than list).

MaeZe said:

And are these contracts negotiable?

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Every contract is negotiable! I far prefer having an agent do it, but I did negotiate one on my own, and the publisher's lawyers were perfectly cheerful and accommodating. One thing Ex-Agent said to me that I've taken to heart: Nobody signs the boilerplate. (Which probably isn't true, but it did give me courage when I had to do it on my own.)

csmalerich said:

It's on net sales. Which I'm reading I should try to negotiate to list price, eh?

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Depends. Is it on print or ebook? AFAIK (and people can contradict me on this) list is common for print, sale price is common for ebook.

I also want to say the percentages don't sound bad to me, and that's not what I'd be focusing on in the contract.

After getting my fingers singed here and there, I tend to look at the What If Things Go Wrong stuff: reversion clauses, escape clauses, that sort of thing. What's my recourse if things go wrong? What's theirs? Under what circumstances can they drop the book? Under what circumstances might I owe them the advance back? When does the book count as "out of print," and what's the process for me getting my rights back?

Also: What rights are you selling, and how are they going to use those rights? For example, you don't want to sell film rights to a publisher who has nothing to do with the film industry.

A good contract will protect both you and the publisher. Think about situations in which you'd need protection. And if you're confused about any of the language - spend a little cash and hire a lawyer to read and explain the contract to you. Do not ever sign a contract you don't understand.

csmalerich said:

It's on net sales. Which I'm reading I should try to negotiate to list price, eh?

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if you think it's likely this is the only offer you will receive, tbh I would counter by asking for more upfront instead. I buy distribution rights for films in my day job and whatever advance we offer initially, there is usually at least some wiggle room as we are prepared to pay a bit higher. I suspect this is similar for publishers. It would be odd to start with the highest possible bid unless the rights holder is already close to signing with someone else.