Authors are seeing advances reduced to a quarter of what they could have expected two years ago as publishers react to the recession by minimising risks.
Bugger.
Don’t fret, young writers! (And old writers.) Obviously it is much nicer to get a cheque for £100,000 than £10,000, but it’s essential to remember that an advance is just that - a sort of loan that you don’t have to pay back, but you want to pay back, in order to profit. Most publishing contracts give writers about £1 per copy for first editions (e.g. hardbacks or trade paperbacks, if they don’t do a hardback), so a £100K advance means you probably have to sell at least 100K to make any money on top of your advance. That doesn’t happen easily or quickly (or, for most books, ever).
Authors who get large advances that haven’t ‘earned out’ - that is, sold enough copies of the book that the publisher profited, meaning that the publisher vastly overestimated the book’s worth on the market - often find themselves orphaned when it’s time for their second book. If the advance is smaller, you don’t get as much money up front, but if the book is successful, you still get the money in the long run (just ask JK Rowling). Small advances, therefore, are not as instantly gratifying, but are the surer route to a sustainable career as an author.
Or at least that is what I tell myself when I look at my less-than-stunning bank statement!
