Good morning! I am dying inside at the level of well-intentioned but totally-off opining about seven-figure advances in my feed. Remind me later today to talk about various reasons why you all are wrong about this, although I do love you.
PS: editors, while I’m finishing the school run, now is the chance to DM me the anonymous insider opining you’re too shy to share on your own feed 👀👀
OK, I really have to keep this quick, but: first, a reminder that 6-7 advances for single books are payable in 4 installments, typically spanning 4 years, sometimes more. An increasing # of 7-figure advances are 5-installment. But let's say the deal is $1 mil, 4 installments.
That's $250k in 1099 income (so no benefits, of course) for 4 years, all of which are generally your tax responsibility, although you're only actually receiving $212.5k after your agents get their (ahem, deserved) cut. I am not a CPA but believe the fed income tax on that is $85k
GET AN ACCOUNTANT, you can deduct so much, etc etc., but no matter how clever you are, you're probably looking at a take home in the mid-100 range annually for 4 years, then, for the vast majority of these authors, bupkis forever.
Great $. Way more than US median, if you look away from the *years* of expertise/platform building (NF) or writing (F) that go into these things. Just: if you make a W2 salary w/benefits in the $100s, you're doing better than these ppl. SO SPARE ME YOUR IGNORANCE, PLEASE.
And now we turn to how these advances are determined. I'm seeing a lot of BIG assumptions that it boils down to Glinda the Good Witch with a ruby scepter in the PRH lobby, arbitrarily bestowing millions upon heads. That is wrong. It's calculated like a small business investment.
When an editor wants your book and gets a thumbs up from their colleagues (which they must), the next thing they do is calculate a P&L (profit and loss) forecast based on comp title sales, the author's fan base and media access, market trends, and production costs.
And some other things. Is a lot of guesswork involved here? YES, OH MY GOD YES. Is some of it kiiiinda bullshit, especially with novels? YES. But the idea that this number comes from an arbitrary decision that a book is "deserving" because it's "great" - painfully wrong.
That's why it's SO IMPORTANT that you and your agent come up with RECENT, BESTSELLING, EXCITING comp titles for your book -- AND that you work relentlessly, ideally for years/decades, to build your fan base/platform before even thinking about a book deal.
For instance: the comp numbers for a perfectly-crafted but modestly-platformed 2014 memoir on sexual abuse--a topic and genre, alas, that are among one of the most common we see--are going to be waaaaay smaller than a post-Me Too, post THREE WOMEN commercial novel on that topic
Yes, and: white privilege and sexism are still HUGE PROBLEMS in the industry. All of us who sell books by women and POC know which editors and publishers (nb: "publisher" is a job at an imprint, essentially meaning 'business boss') somehow always don't trust the market potential.
This is something a person with acquisitions meeting experience at a big 5 imprint DMed to remind me as I've been typing this. "Things [are] said in those meetings that would floor you." I know. Oh, I know. A good agent knows where Scylla and Charibdis are. Yes, and.
Here's what will help: good CEOs firing managers who are smug and don't listen. Any white publishing person who has ever said "well, I should warn you that I am not going to be very PC here" understanding what that sounds like to those of us who are now taking over: incompetence.
Here's what will not help: nationalizing publishing?! Oh my God have you met the federal government recently? Or "give 10 authors $100,000 instead" if those authors are not bringing equal customer bases to justify those investments.
Also, the idea that 7-figure advances guarantee millions of sales + Oprah's Book Club + eternal love and fame for everyone involved: lololololololol sob incorrect
Fiction in particular is an exponential market: basically everything, including the big contracts, flops except the 1 title in...I don't know how many, a very very small percentage...that rains gobsmacking, outlandish, Olympian money upon all involved parties forever
And you know what those outlandish moneymakers tend to be about? Women being sexually abused! ::jazz hands:: Definitely a reason why the seven-figure books everyone's talking about include "Statutory Rape, Complicated Bc Arousing" and "Murderous Yet Flirty Cartel Boss"
Publishers need to be able to pay $1 mil advances to nab the outlandish moneymakers that will float the whole building and everyone in it. They need to then take some of that money and invest in sustainable careers for people who have lived outside of upper-middle whiteness.
If those hires have the support to give honest feedback that their bosses LISTEN TO AND ACT ON, publishers will discover new markets (people buy books when they see their hopes and fears in them!) and comp titles will beget comp titles.
Readers and authors need to BUY THE BOOKS THAT THEY WANT TO SEE MORE OF. Don't be mad that someone's writing something similar to you. Pray that it does well. Buy it if you possibly can.
The issue isn't that some authors are making a comfortable temporary income off of books. The issue is that this industry is sick with pride (smugness) and envy, and the powerful aren't listening enough. FIN oh God ok clients I'll pay attention to you now
