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Teresa Edgerton · 22nd March 2007, 11:55 PM

The advance is an advance against estimated royalties. So a percentage should definitely be stipulated in the contract, but if sales never reach the point where the royalties add up to the total of the advance, then no more money is due the author. On the other hand, if the book doesn't "earn out" the author still gets to keep the full advance.

More often than not, and particularly with first time authors, the book doesn't earn out, and the advance is all the writer ever sees.

For first time authors, royalties are usually 6% for mass market paperback, 10% for hardcover. They'll usually stipulate the royalties for all formats, even if they only plan to publish in mass market. The percentage may go up after a certain number of copies have sold.

22nd March 2007, 11:55 PM	#119 (permalink)
Teresa Edgerton Goblin Princess Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,106 Blog Entries: 2	Re: "Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold The advance is an advance against estimated royalties. So a percentage should definitely be stipulated in the contract, but if sales never reach the point where the royalties add up to the total of the advance, then no more money is due the author. On the other hand, if the book doesn't "earn out" the author still gets to keep the full advance. More often than not, and particularly with first time authors, the book doesn't earn out, and the advance is all the writer ever sees. For first time authors, royalties are usually 6% for mass market paperback, 10% for hardcover. They'll usually stipulate the royalties for all formats, even if they only plan to publish in mass market. The percentage may go up after a certain number of copies have sold.