Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
No one here has yet mentioned one of the major costs of the publisher- author advances. This is huge because without author advances, much quality nonfiction and fiction could not be written. Without those advances authors would simplyly not have the wherewithal to do research ( which might involve travel and lots of time going through archives) and to pay living expenses while writing their book.
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I think that depends more on the author than the genre. Entrepreneurs exist in all businesses. Including books. Harry Potter (Rowling) was written without any deal or advance. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit over roughly seven years with no publishing deal or advance. So many writers had their breaks with work they'd written
before getting a contract or advance.
The real purpose of the advance is
not to enable the writing, but to ensure that the publication house owns rights to publish it when it's ready.