Earning Out Your Advance - Catherine Baab-Muguira Shares on Electric Lit

Traditional publishing deals generally work where the author gets an advance from the publisher against the book's future earnings. The publisher accounts for each sale (holding back reserves for returns, though that's a topic for a different blog post), and once they have earned back the full amount of the advance, you are said to have "Earned Out" that advance.

At which point you start earning royalties on sales of the book.

Everyone wants their book to earn out, but the sad reality is that many books don't earn out. Ever.

And there's a delicate balance, where agents and authors like the idea of a large advance, but if it's too large and the sales don't materialize—if the publisher loses too much on a book—it can be hard to get that next deal.

With this context, the essay “My Book Earned Out in Two Years and Nothing Happened” by Catherine Baab-Muguira over at Electric Lit is well-worth reading. 

Catherine writes about earning out the advance of her debut book:

And all it had cost me was incalculable time and energy, weekends with my family, the opportunity to finesse and sell another book.

And

I didn’t shatter my advance with record-breaking sales. I didn’t go on late-night television shows. I didn’t become a household name. I just became one of the 25 to 30 percent of authors who do earn out their advances, and who still remain nobodies, midlist maybes, yesterday’s “some personal news” tweets. Of all the hardships that characterize the writing life, I’m not ashamed to say this one has hit me the hardest.

I share not to bum you out, but in the face of Catherine's noting:

I’d always thought writers were full of shit when they said publishing a book doesn’t change your life. Now I know what they mean.

It's worth acknowledging that writing (and yes, translating and illustrating as well) cannot be just about the money. For us to stay sane as we create works for kids, tweens, and teens, we have to have other goals in mind. 

We need to really think about what constitutes success for us. For each book.

Catherine's focus of the essay was that it took her two years to earn out. Another focus might have been that she sold 10,000 copies of her book -- 10,000 copies of her book that reached readers. And if some of those copies were shared, or acquired by libraries, maybe her words and story reached many more than 10,000 readers.

And that's something worth celebrating, too.

What about the impact on a single reader? Harder to quantify, but that's another focus of success as well.

Food for thought on this publishing adventure,

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

How Many Copies of Your Book Have To Sell For It To Be Considered A Success?

The easy answer is "enough to earn out your advance" if you're traditionally published, and maybe "enough to earn back your investment" if you're financing publication yourself through either hybrid or author-publishing.

The more complex answer, according to author and publisher Brooke Warner of She Writes Press, in this article Reframing Publishing Success in Publishers Weekly's BookLife, is an honest look at numbers.

While many authors state that selling 10,000 copies is their goal, Brooke cautions that “it’s an unrealistic benchmark for 95% of authors, and it’s especially unrealistic for debut authors.” She goes on to explain:

“In 2015, Lynn Neary reported a story on NPR called “When It Comes to Book Sales, What Counts as Success Might Surprise You” that noted that one of the books shortlisted for that year’s Man Booker Prize had sold fewer than 3,600 copies and another fewer than 3,000.”

Her advice includes this gem:

“Debut authors would do well to think of their first books as an investment in themselves and their futures. It’s common book publishing wisdom that the needle doesn’t truly begin to move on book sales until authors publish their third book. As such, this industry requires patience, and selling 1,000 or 2,000 copies of a freshman effort is something worth celebrating.”

And Brooke adds a reminder to:

“Celebrate the small victories, such as moments of connection with readers, a glowing review from a stranger, and the potential that these kinds of victories have to propel the next book.”

It's an article well-worth reading.

Illustrate and Write On,\Lee

Results are in for Hannah Holt's survey of 48 YA authors - "Writing for Young Adults - A Look at the Numbers"

The results of this survey, "Writing for Young Adults - A Look at the Numbers," are so interesting. Thanks to Hannah and the 48 anonymous YA authors for sharing this information with us all!

Here's are some highlights:

It took about 70% of young adult authors four or more years to publish their first book.

Large houses average debut copies sold: 22,200
Small houses with advance: 7,800 copies
Small houses without advance: 2,000 copies

and

Most young adult authors are rejected by publishers before their manuscript is accepted for publication. In fact, 8.5% receive more than 100 rejections.

It's well-worth reading.

Overall, it's helpful to have realistic expectations of the career-side of being an author.

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

SCBWI Book Blast Is Open To The Public!

#SCBWIBookBlast is live for the next six weeks!

The link: http://www.scbwi.org/bookblast/

The scoop: Explore new books from independent & traditionally published writers & illustrators with #SCBWIBookBlast

What's extra cool: Visitor incentives! For this week of October 10, post pictures of your favorite Book Blast picture book page on Twitter for a chance to win a $100 gift card, and SCBWI will match that with a donation to We Need Diverse Books!

Have SCBWI friends with books out in 2016? Drop by their book pages and sign their guestbook with a note of encouragement. And hey, you can buy copies, too...

Explore, and help us all spread the word about #SCBWIBookBlast!

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Hugh Howey's empassioned argument for Amazon and self-publishing

In this Digital Book World interview by Daniel Berkowitz, successful self-published author Hugh Howey makes some fascinating points talking up the pros of self-publishing, like

"There’s a good route here for a livable wage if you can write entertaining stories and really pour energy into doing it right." 

and the cons of traditional publishing, like

"Publishers need to rebrand from the ground up. Get rid of ancient imprints that readers don’t care about. Stop paying seven- and eight-figure advances to people who are already millionaires, and instead pay more up-and-coming authors a livable wage."

Here's a highlight of their exchange:

Daniel: There’s some talk lately about Amazon being a monopoly or monopsony and the negative effects its share of the market has on the flourishing of literature. In your opinion, how worried should we be?

Hugh: I think the motives here are no secret, and they have historical precedent. When those who can’t compete on the open market realize this, they appeal to the public for sympathy and to the courts for protection. There are two very strident campaigns going on here, and both are ethically bankrupt.

Amazon has vastly increased the access to books. They have also vastly increased every author’s access to the market. They are lowering prices for consumers and increasing pay to producers. They are able to do this by operating very efficiently and by pouring all their earnings back into their business divisions.

What’s really Orwellian about these monopoly complaints isn’t just that Amazon is doing the opposite of what they’re being accused of; it’s that major publishers are the ones who have enjoyed a collaborative monopoly for many years and have used the lack of competition to calcify the reading experience, overcharge for their wares and underpay for work.

For a very long time, most aspiring writers had no hope of expressing themselves and having access to consumers. Amazon almost single handedly changed that. For an equally long time, many lower income and small-town readers have not had access to enough affordable books. Amazon almost single-handedly changed that.

Even better, Amazon is now hurting the big-box brick and mortar stores that decimated indie bookshops. Indie bookstores are making a comeback, and it’s largely because Amazon cleared out the wolves that were winnowing their kind. Those bookstores offer a shopping experience Amazon.com can’t emulate, so the two can exist in harmony. But there’s no doubting the positive effect Amazon has had on their numbers. Shoppers are showing they will support both.

So Amazon has been great for readers, writers and small bookstores. That leaves noncompetitive middlemen and the authors who were enriched by their system to complain. To be simultaneously pro-books and anti-Amazon requires some truly impressive mental gymnastics from anyone else.

It's a thought-provoking interview and well worth reading.

Illustrate and Write On, 
Lee