Determining Advance Value

allryuken · Dec 15, 2020

Hello,

I don't know if there are any active agents here but if anyone else has any relevant experience, I'd really enjoy a discussion or any knowledge of insights on determining advances.

Hypothetically, let's say I have a book series of 5 titles with one publisher released over the last 4 years, and the publisher has shipped and sold over 700,000 units (With sales slightly skewed towards the flagship title). I've since released another stand-alone title with them at a $40,000 advance and after its first year, it's sold 120,000 copies. I am looking to go and get my next book deal and I want to push for the maximum possible advance I could get this publisher to pay.

You need to negotiate and obviously try to determine what the 'fair market value of your work' might be to figure out what to aim for. How would you go about determining this?

be frank · Dec 15, 2020

allryuken said:
Hypothetically, let's say I have a book series of 5 titles with one publisher released over the last 4 years, and the publisher has shipped and sold over 700,000 units (With sales slightly skewed towards the flagship title). I've since released another stand-alone title with them at a $40,000 advance and after its first year, it's sold 120,000 copies. I am looking to go and get my next book deal and I want to push for the maximum possible advance I could get this publisher to pay.

700,000 units?!??!

My 10,000th post seems like an apt time to point out a trade published novel is more likely to hit 10,000 units sold than 3/4 million, if that.

Nutshell: I'd like your hypothetical sales, please.

allryuken · Dec 15, 2020

Yes thank you for pointing this out and I am aware of the probabilities. However, if anyone can provide any useful advice for this scenario, the insight would be greatly appreciated and useful.

Cheers

Elle. · Dec 15, 2020

First if an author has those kind of sales figures their agent would be negotiating with publishers not the author themselves and 2nd the advance is as much as the publisher is willing to pay and depends on how much of a success they think the book will be. It will also depend if more than one publisher is interested and if it goes to auction or if there is a pre-empt offer from a publisher. I think there are pretty as many scenarios as there are book deals.

Woollybear · Dec 15, 2020

Hypothetically, let's say I have a book series of 5 titles with one publisher released over the last 4 years, and the publisher has shipped and sold over 700,000 units (With sales slightly skewed towards the flagship title).

The wording is slightly ambiguous ... and I could imagine many (many) thousands of free ebook downloads being included in that number. The publisher could claim shipment on that, and I'm curious about the details here. (Not in an aggressive way, but in a way meant to shed some light on what comprises that number.)

AW Admin · Dec 15, 2020

If you have that kind of sales in print, you're going to be on the standard Best Seller Lists.

Your negotiations are going to be complex, and will include specific delivery requirements for multiple books, with escalator / elevator clauses regarding royalties, and additional advances for international sales.

It's too nebulous a question to ask; every agent will negotiate differently and the items you could ask for are varied. It's not really answerable in the abstract. It depends far too much on the books, the publishers, the agent and the author.

allryuken · Dec 15, 2020

Thanks to everyone that answered. I suppose looking at the answers it ended up being a rhetorical question. I guess I will go back to searching for an agent to handle it for me. Perhaps closing this thread might be for the best @ AWAdmin!

Determining Advance Value

allryuken

be frank

not a bloke, not named frank

allryuken

Elle.

Woollybear

AW Admin

allryuken