Quote:
Originally Posted by charlesatan
a) he gets an advance (which might not be as important now considering the previous success of his books)
b) a large advance since he's a best-selling author.
Still, it might pay off if his eBook sales are maintained.
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a) advances are, as the very term suggests, the publishing equivalent of payday loans. They tide you over until the (royalty) paycheck gets in. Like them, they aren't too far from disguised loansharking. Unless Goodkind has been really unwise in his money management he should be well past *needing* an advance.
b) the second use of advances is to disguise higher royalty rates for best-selling authors who get paid such large lump-sumps for their books they never earn-out their "advance" at the nominal rate. Given the mixed reviews of his last two books, it seems unlikely the "what-have-you-done-for-me-lately" trad publishers will be thinking of him as a *current* bestseller worthy of such a deal.
From the author side, the economics of trad-pub and self-pub are so different as to be almost complementary so which way to go is a matter of personal situation at the moment of choosing.
Neither approach is going away and the wisest authors will keep an open mind and choose the one best suited to each project on a case by case basis, doing what is best for *them*.