I did a happy dance when I got my royalty statement last week!
Last week, I shared my most recent royalty statement from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.??Joy Acey asked a couple of questions in the Comments, and I thought I’d answer them here, to the best of my ability.
At a recent children’s poetry workshop, an editor told us their ’standard? first run for a poetry book is 4,000 copies.? Do you know if that is true for the big 6 houses??
I don’t know for sure. I think 4,000 is probably about right or even high?for my two poetry books so far (both with Clarion/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), because BookSpeak is in its 5th printing, but I only just passed 10,000 copies sold in June of this year. So I assume they’re printing just a couple thousand at a time. And that would be because publishers WANT to publish poetry and many editors love and appreciate poetry…but they’re also very cognizant of poetry’s sales records.
And if you’re wondering how I know what printing it is, here’s the cataloging page of a recent copy of BookSpeak:
See where it counts down at the bottom RDT: 10 9 8 7 6 5 ? That lowest number is the number of the printing that that book is part of.
If an advance is made, ?an advance against royalties,? does that mean? authors of poetry collections get smaller advances, or do they even get advances?
An advance is always against royalties. It’s like if you get an advance on your pay, it’s an advance against future paychecks. My advance for Stampede and then also for BookSpeak was $4,000. It’s what I was? offered, and then I used that offer to get an agent, and my agent couldn’t get any higher, either. But–I was in a crit group at the time with?well-published and award-winning picture book writer and novelist, and she had gotten the exact same advance for her first book with Clarion. So I don’t think it had anything to do with it being poetry.
I often hear $10,000 is a standard picture book advance for the big 6 publishers, and that would be split between the author and illustrator. I don’t know exactly how accurate that is, but I hear it thrown around a lot.
With Millbrook Press/Lerner, for A Leaf Can Be…, Water Can Be…, and A Rock Can Be…, my advance has been $3,000 each time.
Here’s why I don’t worry too much about advances. If your book sells well, you will get your percentage. And I want my books to sell well. I don’t want to lose the publisher’s money. If they pay me a big advance, and then my book doesn’t sell well, sure, I’ll have made more cash (because you don’t return the advance, even if it never earns out), but I’ll have a black mark against me with that publisher. I’ve worked with good publishers so far, and I want to continue to do so, so my focus is on writing great books and helping to promote them. A huge advance would be more pressure on me, and I would be more likely to fail to earn it out.
It seems like it might take forever to earn out one’s advance.?
That’s true! I hear (again, no particular stats to back it up) that most picture books never earn out their advance. The other thing I hear is that the advance is generally based on what the author would make if the first printing sells out.
I hope that answers your questions, Joy. Holler (anybody can holler, not just Joy:>) if I haven’t been clear about anything!
Thanks for this enlightening post, Laura. Most children’s writers post about the craft, agents and publishers, but are fairly mute on the money end of things. Thanks for pointing out the RDT number too; I never knew that. :0)
You’re welcome, Donna–yep, I always wish we were more open about numbers. It’s hard to understand the big picture when you have no specifics!
Thanks for this enlightening post, Laura. Most children’s writers post about the craft, agents and publishers, but are fairly mute on the money end of things. Thanks for pointing out the RDT number too; I never knew that. :0)
You’re welcome, Donna–yep, I always wish we were more open about numbers. It’s hard to understand the big picture when you have no specifics!
Helpful, as always, Laura. Thank you. 🙂
Glad it was useful:>)
Helpful, as always, Laura. Thank you. 🙂
Glad it was useful:>)
Interesting to hear about your experience, Laura. thanks much!
Sure thing, Linda:>)
Interesting to hear about your experience, Laura. thanks much!
Sure thing, Linda:>)
Laura, Two other points worth mentioning: The first printing is not based on the advance. Publishers calculate the advance on their early expectations, before they have any solid numbers (other than your sales history) to go on. The first printing is based on pre-orders and early “buzz.” One thing that makes a large advance desirable for the author is that marketing budgets are strongly influenced by the size of the advance. If you get a six figure advance, the marketing people will be under some pressure to make the title worth the investment, and will be more likely to have a larger marketing budget. If your advance is $2000, they are more likely to simply put the title on their list with minimum marketing, then wait and see what develops. Of course there are exceptions to this, and many other factors involved.
Excellent points, Pete! Thanks for the info regarding first printing. And on the advance–yes, that’s the one big plus to me of a big advance. It definitely reflects a heavy commitment on the part of the publisher to make the book a success. So it’s added pressure on the author (at least, I would feel it that way), but it also increases the book’s chances of commercial success, since the marketing folks will be really pushing to make their investment pay off. Thanks for weighing in!
Laura, Two other points worth mentioning: The first printing is not based on the advance. Publishers calculate the advance on their early expectations, before they have any solid numbers (other than your sales history) to go on. The first printing is based on pre-orders and early “buzz.” One thing that makes a large advance desirable for the author is that marketing budgets are strongly influenced by the size of the advance. If you get a six figure advance, the marketing people will be under some pressure to make the title worth the investment, and will be more likely to have a larger marketing budget. If your advance is $2000, they are more likely to simply put the title on their list with minimum marketing, then wait and see what develops. Of course there are exceptions to this, and many other factors involved.
Excellent points, Pete! Thanks for the info regarding first printing. And on the advance–yes, that’s the one big plus to me of a big advance. It definitely reflects a heavy commitment on the part of the publisher to make the book a success. So it’s added pressure on the author (at least, I would feel it that way), but it also increases the book’s chances of commercial success, since the marketing folks will be really pushing to make their investment pay off. Thanks for weighing in!
I completely agree with you about advances Laura. And thank you so much for explaining how you know what printing it is! Do you know that after all this time I had no idea? Now I want to go find recent copies of all my books and see what printing they’re in 🙂
Isn’t that cool? There are a couple other less common indicators, too…I think my LEAF CAN BE… shows it a different way. But this countdown is true in most cases. I only learned about it a year or two ago. Who knew?
I completely agree with you about advances Laura. And thank you so much for explaining how you know what printing it is! Do you know that after all this time I had no idea? Now I want to go find recent copies of all my books and see what printing they’re in 🙂
Isn’t that cool? There are a couple other less common indicators, too…I think my LEAF CAN BE… shows it a different way. But this countdown is true in most cases. I only learned about it a year or two ago. Who knew?
FABULOUS post. When I am asked about my advance for my picture book with a smaller house, we have this same conversation. Good to see it explained so well!
Thanks, Donna. There’s a lot to think about with advances, and this is the tip of the iceberg…but I’m very happy with my modest advances and with my earnings being dependent upon the commercial success or failure of the book. The publisher takes a risk, and so do I. Seems pretty fair:>)
FABULOUS post. When I am asked about my advance for my picture book with a smaller house, we have this same conversation. Good to see it explained so well!
Thanks, Donna. There’s a lot to think about with advances, and this is the tip of the iceberg…but I’m very happy with my modest advances and with my earnings being dependent upon the commercial success or failure of the book. The publisher takes a risk, and so do I. Seems pretty fair:>)
This is so timely for me! Just two days ago I was signing stock at the local bookstore and wanted to know the mysterious meaning of 10, 9, 8, etc. I knew it had something to do with print run but wasn’t exactly. THRILLED to realize my book is in it’s 8th printing!
Wow, that’s fantastic! Glad the post was useful:>)
This is so timely for me! Just two days ago I was signing stock at the local bookstore and wanted to know the mysterious meaning of 10, 9, 8, etc. I knew it had something to do with print run but wasn’t exactly. THRILLED to realize my book is in it’s 8th printing!
Wow, that’s fantastic! Glad the post was useful:>)