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sorry, just realized that I need price listings on how much an author makes per book, as I have not really been in print my self... Posts: 240 | Registered: Oct 2005
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It depends on the contract, but the general figures are about 6 to 8 percent of the cover price for each paperback sold and about 10 to 12 percent of the cover price for each hardback sold. Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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From what I've read, the advance on a first novel is about $3,000. And there's actually a formula on how advances are offered. Let's say a general, first novel print run is 6,000 copies. The publisher is giving you 10% of royalties. If each copy sells for $10, that means the total royalties you can make on that print run is $6,000 (6,000 copies x $10 = $60,000. 10% of that is $6,000.) The publisher will probably offer half the royalties as an advance. So they'll give you $3,000 up front. Now, before you can start earning royalties, you have to "earn out" your advance. That means, you have to sell enough copies of your book to equal the advance. So, in this scenario, you have to sell 3,000 copies. Anything after that and you get 10% (or whatever your royalty is) on remaining sells. Now, if you sell your first print run, the publisher will probably do a second run. You don't get an advance on that, you just continue to collect royalties. There's also the possibility that you won't earn out your advance. If your book crashes and burns, you get to keep the advance. That money is yours.
Now, did any of that sound confusing? Because it gets more complicated, but I won't go into that, I'd have to get out my notes. But if you ever make a sell on a novel, get an agent. They know things you don't, they know how to work a contract. You may not get a bigger advance on your first sell, but they can usually get more money on future books than you can yourself. So, they're generally worth the 15% fee.
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