[Annessadav]

...or maybe not so "expected" income...what should (supposing the novel is good enough to be accepted by a publishing house) a first-time fantasy author expect for her first novel?
this includes advances and percentage rates...and being in the U.S...AND supposing that it is accepted by a well-established publishing house???:confused:

[JBI]

5000 advance. On a flop nothing else, on a sell anything else.

[Rocket Sheep]

You will make the advance. The publisher might just cover costs. They won't start making money until your second or third novel... which is why they are very fussy about who they take on.

[TheGhost]

Point being, don't get into this writing business to get paid. But if you like to create, you're in the right gig.


Ghostie

[James Barclay]

Expected income: nil.

There is no minimum advance unless it is zero. All you need to be sure of is that you don't pay to publish, then you're in negative territory.

And I disagree, you won't necessarily earn out any advance. If it's £5,000 advance, you have to sell 5,000 trade paperbacks at a 10% royalty on £10 sale price. Or, if you're straight to mass market, operating at say 7% royalty on a £7 cover price, you need to sell over 10,000. These are not insignificant sales but to receive royalties over and above your advance, that is what you are looking at. One thing though, which is a small comfort if your book bombs... you don't have to pay the advance back. Mind you, you won't have been paid the whole lot up front (typically, it's a third of whole contract on signature, more on delivery of each mss, more on trade publication of each volume, more on publication of mass market volumes).

If your contract is for 3 books at £5,000 a piece, then treble your sales overall to begin earning royalties. Or make some foreign rights sales, they help a lot.

And be assured that your publisher is making money well before your contract advance is earned out...

And be assured that all I have said is typical, none of it is set in stone.

NOM