PublishingMyths

“If you don’t earn out your advance, you’ll never publish another book.”

Many think publishing works like this: Author writes book. Publisher gives author money. Book sells and publisher makes back its money (hopefully more). Author gets more money and another book deal. But this tidy trajectory is in fact not that common. Most books do not “earn out”—meaning they do not earn in book sales as much as the publisher’s initial investment—and yet authors keep getting book deals. How can this be? First, let’s define the essential terms. When an author gets a book deal, the publisher offers an advance, a payment against future earnings. Authors then earn royalties—a percentage of the sale of each format (print, e-book, audio, and so on)—and that accrues against the advance. (Other things, like foreign sales, go into the royalty account, too, but that’s for…

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Poets & Writers (Digital) - 1 Issue, November/December 2023

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