where the writers are
Authors: Just say "No!" to your advance

My fellow authors laughed when I said I was publishing my fourth book with Numina Press. Then they learned my cut of each sale.

How big is the difference? Try three times as much money each sale.

Numina is an exclusive commercial publisher that uses print-on-demand technology to radically alter the cost ratios in favor of the author. They started working with dead writers like Jack London, who was quite cooperative. Now they have their sights set on living published authors, who are not.

Your choice, living authors. Take home:

$1.50 from a $23 book, or

$4.50 from a $16 book.


Big New York publishers will give me an advance!

Big New York publishers will get me publicity!

Big New York publishers will pay for a book tour!

Big New York publishers will get me book store placement!



But major publishers will pay me an advance!







Remember: Second book finished? Publishers read the bottom line on their balance sheet before they read the first line of your manuscript.

Pop quiz!

Which is better? A $2,000 advance, or a $200,000 advance?

Answer: $2,000.

If Modest Mary gets a $2,000 advance and a humble 5000 book print-run which sells out, causing a second print run that sells out at 10,000, Mary's publisher just might buy her second book and push the publicity a little more. This slow ramping up of a loyal readership over the years is how book authors make a living.

If Brainwashed Bob is lavished with a $200,000 advance, a guest spot on Jon Stewart, and a 100,000 print run, but he sells only 20,000 copies, Bob gets the Big Red Mark, and he can say goodbye to his career, which Bob won't even realize is kaput until he invests a few years of his life writing an even better sequel to his first hit.

Huh? But Modest Mary only sold 10,000 books! Why is Brainwashed Bob punished for selling twice as many?



Half the sales rewarded? Twice the sales punished? Could big New York publishing really be that wacky?



That's another thing that will turn around and bite you in the ass: print runs of a quarter million. The first 50,000 books sold will turn cheap, invade amazon, and compete with their newborn clones that you are trying to sell-- just like in that movie Gremlins when all the cute fuzzy animals you've nurtured turn evil.

It doesn't matter if your book has earned cult status, won awards, or climbed bestseller lists. How much money did you make the publisher? If the money your book earned doesn't pay back the money the publisher spent, you're a pariah in the industry, no matter how much fan mail you get each week.

It's far more economically astute to borrow your advance from a credit card and pay back at 8% interest than to accept an advance from a big New York publisher with your career as author as collateral. The first, biggest, most ruthless killer of author careers is the Big Fat Advance for a first or second or third book.






Your advance ain't charity. It's a hedge against other publishers.



Answer: shlump.



You want money? Write a book that pleases readers and makes them want to recommend it to their friends. That's called earning it. If you accept charity from your publisher, you don't believe in your book.

The best thing that can happen to an author? Get no advance at all, then sell a modest amount of copies to make a tidy profit.

Repeat after me: Advances will destroy my writing career.

Sales are good for my writing career.

Next time we confront the next bugaboo: the Publicity Myth.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/jquirk/detail?blogid=146&entry_id=46347#ixzz0RLU1OOQv

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This post certainly taught me a lot about the publishing industry. Thanks. I've just finished my first novel Tales Tell Tales (a fantasy quest novel at 82,000 words long) and am looking for an agent. Do you recommend I go the POD route? Or that I get an agent anyway?

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first timer


Sounds like you got a good length for a first novel.  The first-time novelist is in a Catch-22.  You need the prestige you can still get with a traditional publisher.  POD may get you a higher royalty, but no one will ever hear of it.

Since fantasy already has it's own devoted community which supports the genre, and nobody has ever heard of you, I'd recommend you get an agent who sells fantasy and go the traditional route.  That way, you can establish your reputation and go with POD with your second or third.


For you, get a agent who knows the fantasy market.


Best of luck to you, brother,



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Thanks a mil

Joe, you make a lot of sense.

Thank you for your advice and encouragement. There are a lot of 'uncategorizable literary novel' ideas and works in progress that I've shelved for the time being to treat my readers with a little kindness and to see if I can write something understandable and memorable for a wide range of readers. I prefer poetic writing and a little off the wall kind of miniatures. My second novel, Dancing with mini-shorts, is exactly that kind of mixed bag of weird things and sounds more suited to POD.

Thanks again,