Breaking Down Book Advances - including 6 figure deals! [MONEY MONTH]
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- čas přidán 28. 07. 2024
- It's that time! I am breaking down book advances! I have a spreadsheet where I've plugged in a variety of theoretical book deal amounts and I'm going through everything: timing, agent fees, taxes, etc.
The video breaks down 12K, 25K, 70K, 100K, 250K and 500K book deals and, most importantly, how much you actually earn after taxes... and over the years.
Warning: this video will crush dreams... but also give you realistic expectations.
Here is a link to the spreadsheet, so you can fill in your own numbers: alexadonne.com/wp-content/uplo...
Here is Jennifer Laughran's post breaking down a 100K 2-book deal: literaticat.blogspot.com/2015/...
Disclaimer: I am not a finance expert, and this is all based on my publishing experiences so far. Some things have also been simplified for the purposes of sharing information. Every book contract is different, and you should always ask your agent about how the money works if you have questions.
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These are the sort of videos I've been waiting for. :) I know people are weird about sharing the dollars-and-cents details, but it's a shame because paying the bills is important. Thank you.
As depressing as this video became, I do really appreciate this video. Also "Unicorn" deal was a great way to describe those deals haha
Thanks for crushing my dreams!! No really, this is incredible and I so wish people would be more open about the hard numbers. I understand it’s not exactly advantageous for writers or publishers to be honest about these kinds of things but it is sooo much appreciated!
I'm not even writing a novel but I found this very eye opening. It helps me respect and appreciate the time, work, and effort each author put into their books. Thank you for doing all the research and sharing it.
I appreciate the honesty. The video was sobering. I live on a budget and a spreadsheet helps us realistically plan for a future as a published author. Thanks for keeping it real.
I watch this video whenever i need to feel something
Funny how this still seems like a lot of money to me. I live in Germany (which means living costs aren't that much cheaper than the US but the book market is much smaller) and even though I'm not published (yet), I did a lot of research. Here it seems to be normal that new authors can expect an advance of about 1000 - 5000€ max. With very small publishers it can even be just a few hundres euros. Anything in the 5 digit range as an advance for a debut would be super super rare and special.
I'm not surprised that so many people are self publishing. Wow! Great vlog
The effort you go through to put put these videos and share your knowledge is much appreciated. Thanks so much!
I'm really glad you are making videos on this. It's great to have this kind of knowledge ahead of time. Especially for someone like me who wants to be published. Like totally a life goal for me is to be published. Money isn't a huge factor for me when it comes to publishing, but it is nice to know the potentials.
Thanks for this information. As a mathematically challenged writer the breakdown helps a lot.
Haha I'm glad it helped! The spreadsheet helps me, too, as I am also generally mathematically challenged. I know like 4 formulas in Excel and they get me through :)
Alexa, these amounts are amazing!! Even the non unicorn deals. I’m struggling right now on disability, and holy you know what I would take any money for my book
Thank you. This was super informative. I'm not seeking traditional publishing but was wondering about the book deal breakdown.
I actually wanted to thank you a lot of other published authors on here will not be this honest about how much one person can get and what that truly equals out to when everything is said and done as a aspiering author i rather know what to expect so i can be pleasantly surprised when my expirations are thrown for a loop i am a stay at home mom who lives with all of her family under the same roof so for me these numbers are omg because i have never seen that much money before in my life lol
I plan on publishing a literary translation book of an Arabic author, and one Spanish author. While I know this is geared towards English fictional literature, it still gives me some type of picture on how things work in the industry as a whole. Great video and best of luck to you.
Thank you. Mind blown. Very helpful.
This video is so necessary and should be widely distributed to any aspiring writer. I didn't go into writing for the money, but it essential that people know what they're getting into.
Thank God I write because I enjoy it.
isant the marketing a business expence that you can offset against your tax burden?
You mentioned how the time between contract signing and acceptance of the first book can vary, but is that simply because editing can take a long time or could it also take months before you actually get the (initial) feedback from the editor? Is there an average amount of time for an editor to go over your book and give you the feedback?
Royalties?
Is the tax so high because of your day job or is that a US thing? How much would tax be if this was your only income? It’d be very different in the UK!
Thank you for making these videos, Alexa ♥️
Thank you.
Great Video(sorry for the late post) - Advances of 12 K or less, with little or no chance to earn royalties, which is paid out in years, shows that the system is broken . Agents, clearly are not working for the writer, so who are they working for?
I’m thinking you’re confusing agents with taxes. Agents deserve to be paid, as do editors, which she didn’t include here. They work very hard and often, without them, there would be no interest in anyone’s books. But taxes? That is an incredibly broken and bad system that needs to be taken back to our founding principles. Taxation without representation is not what we should be practicing. And considering that taxes are around 40% and agent fees are 15%, it should be more obvious. We can either be mad or accept this. I’d rather pay an agent than taxes. At least I’m being represented and it is earned. Could you imagine paying an agent 40%?
No confusion here. Agents negotiate price, so any agent who negotiates a $12k deal is part of the problem. Your reference to taxes appears to be little more than diversion from the real problem.
I don't know if you were planning on doing a video on this or not but could you explain what you know of on the topic of royalties and is that negotiated by your agent or is that a bridge crossed when the sales exceed the advance amount?
I cover royalties a bit on Publishing Money 101, but royalties are negotiated by your agent during the offer stage. Typically with traditional publishers there isn't much wiggle room in terms of standard percentages, but some agents can get the rates nudged up a bit, depending on the book format/other leverage. You're more likely to get more favorable royalty terms from a small publisher than large, in exchange for a lower advance.
Oh thank you. Thats what I thought but I wanted to make sure. I will head over to that video now :D
I mean with a smaller advance, the less you need to earn out aka you might start getting royalties sooner right?
Alexa do you have a video on how to target your book or short stories? I am not sure if I am asking the question correctly. But finding the right publisher at the right time seems like a needle in a hay stack and I haven’t figured out the formula yet
A book of short stories is near impossible unless you’re already a big author.
Not sad at all! :D This was wonderfully informative! Thank you!
Thanks so much for this video!!! Really informative. So itkind of sounds like you shouldn't count on getting any money off of royalties. Does that mean authors shouldn't count on royalties because most books don't earn out ever?
Generally yes: don't count on royalties, so that way if you do earn out and get them, you'll be pleasantly surprised!
Thanks for taking the time to smush that pie-in-the sky in my face. The truth hurts, but it did indeed give me a more solid foundation in reality. Much appreciated-- and keep up the great work. Waaaaaaahhhhhh.......
Awesome, thanks. I have really appreciated the videos and insight. But, your marketing formula is X 0.1 in the math, not 15% as advertised and last I looked Fall 2020 comes before Winter 2020. So did you mean 3 years or 4? 2020 or 2021? 10 or 15%
When it comes to the whole "fall" and "winter" thing I think she meant "winter" as in January and February, not December, so in that case it would come before fall :)
Unsure if you Have received a response but winter is considered beginning of year, financially, not end. So Christmas might be winter seasonally, with snow and all, but go by the solstices, the calendar, not the snow.
My hopes and dreams have been thoroughly mashed into a paste but I'm thankful for the heads up! This has been incredibly illuminating and I'm now re-evaluating my life choices =P Time to drown my sorrows in brandy.
That intermission 😂😂😂😂😂
why so much for taxes i make that same amount and don't pay any taxes
Did not depress me at all. :-)
as a person from a very poor country that isn't english speaking, 9K usd a year is actually thrice the average salary of the capital city of my country. that's really good lol
Well, maybe I should be more depressed but hey, that's a down payment on a nice car or a house if you stack it
I appreciate your work here, but I gotta question why you'd pay so much in taxes.
Any choice on that? Depends on how you file and etc. I imagine she has no choice in that. And she does explain a bit in the first video, the how publishers pay... one.
I found out you pay 38 percent in taxes only if you are over the 490k something amount they have tax brackets in place at this amount you will only be paying 12 percent in taxes and if you have children you might the pay anything you earn income credit from children will pay that off
You don’t include payouts to editors. Is there a reason? And do the publishers/agents do any of the editing-even when “self-published” through a company?
I am confused by your questions? In traditional publishing your publisher edits your book. You don't pay for editing, ever. If you are finding a publisher demanding that they are not a traditional publisher and it is a vanity scam. (If a publisher is a hybrid model to assist self-publishers they should be upfront about that and they don't pay advances)
Why is the tax bracket so high? Wouldn't the percentage be significantly lower, especially if the 100k is spread out like that?
As of 2020 the tax bracket for between 40k-85k/year is only 22%, not 38% or even 30%! To get taxed 38% you'd have to be making over 500k, unless taxes work different for book deals than for regular income. Of course advances wouldn't be the only income, and if you're book is successful you'll have made it back and more, but still. Definitely eye opening.
Book money isn't regular income; it's contractor income (1099 vs. W2). Different rules. Bonus money falls under the same rules and when I used to get bonuses at work it was also 40% taxes on them. Sucked. Though things changed slightly for the 2019 tax year (after this was made) where my taxes paid on my book went down. I'm on year three with my accountant and they find lots of ways to help me keep more of my book money. Paying estimated taxes helps a lot, too. But I still find it healthier for me to just assume a little less than half of my money isn't really mine ha.
@@AlexaDonne Ahh, of course there's different rules. Just can't make it easy, I guess. Hiring someone for taxes probably is the way to go then. Thank you.
I mean if you can write a book in a few months I don't think this'd be so much of a problem
I guess when you write a book in norwegian or swedish, you get paid even less, because the marked is much smaller xD And fantasy or sci-fi if not appreciated by publishers here.. :P Fun!
well, that was depressing...
thanks, i got a unicorn living in my house
So basically the only way to make any real money is off your royalties. Why would anyone want to traditional publish when you can self publish and have more creative control and be able to pocket way more. With any book you’ll have to market whether traditional or self.
lol I searched up the laws where I live and it's 0.1-20%
38% taxes is theft. Where I live tax on royalties is 2%.
A billion gajillion in sales!
2nd book gets published before it is even accepted. Must be a time travel book.
It's still almost free money, when you think its books or creative works.
Wow. I hated that. 🤣 not you or your video. Just the crushing reality of our capitlist society and how impossible it is to have a dream. Lol