Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
There are no guarantees at all that someone who writes a book will get any profit at all, unless they do it for hire. It's just not that kind of business, and the author 'deserving' money has nothing to do with it. Some authors make a lot of money. Some authors make less money. From strictly a business standpoint, it is a commission sales job.
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Yes and no.
For an author published by a standard trade house, it's more like "draw against commission". The publisher will acquire the rights to publish the book for a fee which is an advance against royalties. The publisher is betting that the book will "earn out" - sell enough copies to cover direct costs and the advance, and generate additional revenue from which the author will be paid further royalties.
Most books do
not earn out, and the advance is all the author sees.
A "work-for-hire" contract works the same way: the author will get a fee for writing the book, and additional royalties if the book sells well. The difference is that someone
else owns the rights to the content. Media tie-in novels, like the Star Trek books, are examples of work-for-hire. Paramount owns the characters and setting, and licenses the right to produce books set in it using those characters. (Though there was yelling a screaming a while back when the publisher doing Star Wars tie-ins announced plans for moving to a straight fee and
no royalties deal for SW books.)
Authors self publishing, or working on a "royalties only" compensation basis, are can be viewed as straight commission work. There is no up front payment.
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Dennis