Book Publishing Deals
What Really Happens When You Land A Book Deal: Publishing Myths And Realities You Need To Know
Author: Stephanie Chandler
Myth: Once you hand over your manuscript, your book will be on bookstore shelves right away.
Patience is essential when working with a traditional publisher. It takes most major publishers about a year to complete your book and put it into distribution. With the amount of red tape they have going on, the process takes much longer than most realize. Just don’t expect to see your book on shelves within a few months, as this is highly unlikely unless your book is rushed to market under special circumstances.
Myth: Your book will be produced exactly as written.
Each publisher has different editorial processes, guidelines and goals. Your developmental editor may want to rework sections of your book or ask you to add or even remove content. Though you will be involved in the editing process and asked to turn it all around quickly, you may or may not like the proposed changes and you may or may not have a voice in the ultimate outcome. Some book deals end up getting cancelled during the editing process when the author and publisher fail to agree on changes.
Myth: You will have input on the cover design.
Cover design is an area where you will probably have little input. The publisher will design something and may send it to you for review, but requests for changes are not likely to be met. This is a point in the process when you may have to accept that your work is no longer exclusively yours.
Myth: Your book must be finished before you pitch it to a publisher.
This is actually true for fiction books—publishers want to see the whole story before a deal is made. But nonfiction books are an exception. During the pitch process, most publishers want to see an outline and two or three sample chapters. If they like your work and offer you a book deal, you can actually negotiate the remaining time needed to complete your manuscript.
Myth: Big Press = Big Marketing
Don’t expect much marketing at all since most publishers don’t have big marketing budgets. The bulk of responsibility almost always falls on the author. You might appear in the publisher’s catalog, in a press release, and may get featured at a trade show, but don’t count on them landing you an appearance alongside Matt Lauer. Those efforts are reserved for established, big-name authors. Smaller publishers may actually work a little harder to assist with marketing since they have more riding on the success of each title, but as a rule, authors should set expectations very low.
Myth: Once you land a book deal, your author career is set for life.
Just because you sign a deal with a publisher, there are no guarantees that they will want your next book, even though your contract will likely stipulate that they get first right of refusal on your next book. Your first book must perform exceptionally well before the next book will be considered for publication.
Keep in mind that you may not want to publish another book with that same publisher. There are many reasons why you might want to move on—creative differences, other publishers that are a better fit for your genre of writing, or you may decide to pursue self-publishing opportunities. This can be a catch-22 as you must give your current publisher the chance to evaluate your next book idea before you can be released from your contract. (Hint: if you want out, pick an idea you know they won’t want!)
Myth: Authors make tons of money.
The vast majority of authors will tell you that there is not a lot of money to be found in a traditional book deal. Sure you get an advance check, which on average comes in around ,000 to ,000, unless you are a celebrity. Then you have to earn that back before you will see another dime.
Perhaps most surprising is what authors earn in royalties from book sales. You can expect to make around to per book sold and with numbers like this, you’ve got to sell a lot of books to generate a substantial royalty check. To make matters worse, most publishers only pay authors twice per year, so don’t expect to see your monthly income increase because of your book. Some authors create other revenue opportunities around their books from things like speaking (which can command ,000 to ,000 fees), consulting and related information products.
Myth: You can purchase your own books at cost.
As surprising as this may seem, your contract with a publisher will probably allow you to buy your own books at just 40% to 50% off of the cover price. So if you have a book that sells for , you will be lucky to buy your copies for each. Since the publisher’s cost is likely far less than , they are still generating a significant profit from your orders. This is a point that can be negotiated so remember to ask for a deeper discount when you receive your contract offer!
Myth: If you self-publish, you kill your chances of landing a book deal.
If you self-publish a book and achieve some success by selling 1,000 copies or more, you can actually improve your chances of landing a traditional book deal. Publishers want authors to come to the table with a ready made “platform.” This means that they want to know that you have an audience. Selling a significant number of books proves that you have that audience and raises your appeal. Just ask Christopher Paolini, the teenage boy who wrote and self-published “Eragon,” or Richard Paul Evans who wrote “The Christmas Box.” Their self-publishing success stories landed them multi-million dollar book deals.
I know several authors who have been approached by major presses, which can demonstrate an interesting shift in power. In one case, an author who publishes instructional books for a specific trade quickly turned down a rather substantial offer. He simply makes too much money on his books to give his margin away. He also didn’t want to give up control since he has built his own distribution channels so that his books are devoured by his target market. The publisher didn’t relent and instead returned with an even bigger offer. He turned that one down too.
There is still much to celebrate about receiving an offer for a book deal with a traditional publisher. The added credibility can bring plenty of opportunities with the media, speaking, consulting and much more. But it is important to know what you’re getting into before you venture forward so that you can navigate the waters like a pro.
About the Author
Stephanie Chandler is an author of several books including “The Author’s Guide to Building an Online Platform” and “From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur: Make Money with Books, eBooks and Information Products.” She is also the host of http://NonfictionWritersConference.com, the only virtual writers’ conference for nonfiction authors. For author and speaker details visit http://StephanieChandler.com.
Tagged with: authors • book deal • book publishers • book publishing • publishers • publishing
Filed under: Uncategorized
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Well normally when you publish a book the retailer gets about 50%, while the author gets 25%, then there are costs and the publishing house keeps the rest.
Now waterstones is the retailer, and then would have signed a deal to buy the book at a certain wholesale price. They can easily reduce the price by 10, 20, 30, 40%, pay the wholesale price and still make money. So they shouldn’t affect your cut.
Maybe they did a deal with the publisher to buy the book at a cheaper price. But that shouldn’t affect your cut.
Of course, I would suggest you read your contract and see what the specifics are. Because you may have a deal where you get a certain % of the retail price, rather than a certain amount per book.
Only slightly related to this, the author of the book Forrest Gump sign a deal with a movie studio for percentage of net that the movie made (that is profit). After the movie grossed 600 Million he realised he should have request percentage of gross.
Publishers don’t make money from cheating authors. Once they get a reputation for cheating people or stealing copyright, they will have trouble finding quality authors, so we can assume they are doing the right thing by you.
You might indeed wish to have a lawyer specialising in literary contracts to look over your book-signing contract to advise you of your rights & royalties & etc. if you need help understanding your contract. Sometimes a new writer might inadvertently sign away future rights which would prevent their seeing benefit to the book becoming a screenplay, or lock them into something else undesirable. But it’s not a must-have.
First of all either borrow from the local library or (preferably) buy a copy of Writer’s Market 2007 or the most recent copy you can find. Look through it and make a list of ALL the publishers who will accept your genre. Read the information on their entry. It will tell you whether or not you can deal with them directly or if you have to go through an agent. After that, you simply follow their submission guidelines.
Maybe you would like to ask around and perhaps shop around. Many would also suggest getting an agent which could take SO long for them to sit down and actually notice what you have there and believe me, we are not just talking months here but years. Let me give you something to peruse at while you are at it and hopefully this will help in your ride to the wagon of success.
I hope I’ve helped and good luck 🙂
I tell you from personal experiance…it is very, very hard. There are book tours, book signings, P.R., publicity, agents, design teams, etc. All of these things you must be well versed in and able to negotiate, haggle, defend your copyright and promote in order to have your book even make a flutter on the market.
It is definately something to get excited about. It adds a tremendous heap of credibility to the author and is a huge vote of confidence.
And savvy readers know reputable publishers from the fly-by-nights. That in itself helps with sales.
There are plenty of companies that will print books for you, if you pay them. If your friend wanted to, he could set up his own company and put its name on the book as the publisher.
But he’d be crazy to do this, unless he can afford to spend a lot of money on marketing and distribution before the business becomes profitable. Traditional publishers (the ones that pay the author, instead of requiring the author to pay them) are already very good at marketing and distribution, and can do it more efficiently and cheaply than he’s going to be able to.
Yes, I think it would be worthwhile to contact US publishers. They will be more likely to look at your manuscript or synopsis because by your description, the best market would be in the U.S.
An excellent resource that thousands of authors use is The Writers Market. This book is published yearly and contains descriptions, specialities and submission guidelines for publishers, both large and independent. This reference book is available in the US (I don’t know about outside of North America) at libraries, or can be purchased at amazon.com. There is also an online version that is just as good and the great thing is that you can try it out for a 30-day free trial.
I have explained this several times before.
Assuming it is a major publishing house and you have an agent, you can expect this.
The price of a book is based on 6 times the cost of producing the book. Basically it comes to around $24.95 – something in that range for about a 350 page book. Your royalties would be 10% or 2.49 less 15% for your agent or about 2.12.
The average first print run for a first time author is about 15,000 copies. Much less makes it not profitable to print. Assuming your agent is a good one, he or she will be able to negotiate you a 50% advance on your total commission. Or about 15,783.
In addition to the 15% commission, your agent is legally entitled to bill you for incidentals like making copies of your manuscript, postage, long distance calls, etc. — all things they have to do in order to sell your book. They may not charge you for a reading fee, but they may charge you for these other things. And figure that at about 7 cents a copy, every time they duplicate a 350 page manuscript to send to a publisher to read, it costs you about 25.00.
If your book sells 7,501 copies, you start collecting royalties at the rate of 2.12 for each book you sell. If it sells less than 7,500 you will likely owe the publisher a refund of part of the advance. If your books end up on the bargain tables at the major bookstores, your royalty is ZERO.
If your agent and publisher negotiate with large wholesalers like Costco of BJ Warehouse, they will sell your books at about 55% of original cover. That lowers your royalties significantly. Down to around 1.37. However, your book will have a much larger base for people to purchase it. So there is some advantage to that.
Most first time authors take their advance and spend it on merchandising and marketing so they will guarantee higher sales. Your publisher may or may not kick in some promotion dollars – depends on your agent. Just so you know – to get your books on those tables inside the doors at Barnes and Noble will cost you about 1 dollar a book to Barnes and Noble. That is all paid advertising. Publishers rarely go all out on first time authors unless the book is very exceptional. The idea is to promote your book so the entire first run sells and the publisher prints a second, third etc. run. Your agent can negotiate a better deal for you then. But you have to be willing to gamble and spend money to make money.
On the other hand, if your book is being published by a smaller publisher (the more likely scenario) You can expect zero advance and a quarterly royalty check of 10% of your sales.
If you self publish, you pay to have your book printed and then you are on your own to sell it, promote it, etc.
So basically, the answer in short is that you will not see very much money on your average first book deal. In America today, traditional publishers are putting out 150 thousand books a year. And self publishers are probably putting out more than triple that. You are up against a lot of competition and a publisher is more likely to spend his advertising dollars on the latest Dean Koontz or James Patterson than on a newcomer.
That is basically how it works.
—-
They’re, Their, There – Three Different Words.
Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.
Pax – C
In academic publishing, in the neighborhood of 10%
I am an author who has just be signed to a one book publishing deal. My question to everyone, how easy is it?
Is it a big deal to have your book published by a well known publishing house?
Or is this nothing to really get excited about?
A question about PUBLISHING and BOOK DEALS?
I’ve got my 1st book coming out next month and the bookshop Waterstones are putting it in there 3 for 2 Summer Promotion.
does this mean that the book will be sold cheaper and I’ll get less royalties?
dont know what you mean about libraries I AM guaranteed royalties, i got an agent and he sorted it.
once the publisher have covered costs I start getting 10%, going up to 16%max depending on how many sell
dont know what you mean about libraries I AM guaranteed royalties, i got an agent and he sorted it.
once the publisher have covered costs I start getting 10%, going up to 16%max depending on how many sell
In a traditional publishing deal, what kind of royalty per book sold can the author expect?
what is my first step in trying to get a book deal with a major publishing company?
i want to make a book deal with a major publishing company but i have no idea where to begin.
If a publishing co. accepted my manuscript, approximately how much money would I make on that book deal?
It would be for a fictional book, and it would be my first.
How do i get my book published?
I am writing a book about an african american girl. It is set in the 1940s and 50s. The protaganist has many tribulations etc.
The book deals with racism, slavery, civil rights, and child abuse. Does anybody know how i can get this story published?
I have contacted pubishers in Australia. would it be worth contacting publishers in the U.S where the story is set??
Can some one tell me how book deals work?
I’m writting a how to book, and trying to get it published. How do book deals generally work? What are price ranges they pay and things like that?
Can my Friend release his book under his own publishing company?
My Friend loves to right stories and he wants to become a Author and make his own books. i try to tell him he has to get a book deal through company, and he told me that he going to release it under his own imprint can he do that are not
Does anyone have some advice on book publishing?
Okay, so I’m a 19 year old college student and journalist. I recently got a positive reply from a literary agent stating they would like to meet with me about my book idea. I have been reading about literary agents, and book deals. My question would be even though I may eventually sign with the agent to help me get my book published. Do you think that I will need a lawyer also?