Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfCrash
If Publishers are cutting authors because they are not hitting targets, as an author I think I would prefer the option of higher royalties and less of anadvance so that the next book is published as opposed to no advance and no royalties. I would think that agents would prefer that they make something over a period of time then make nothing by insisting on a higher advance payment.
|
Agents have more than one author, so they can afford to negotiate terms that are best for THE AGENT or the entire AGENCY. And since I have had an agent, I can pretty much tell you that at least with some agents, you still have very little to say about contracts as an author. The templates are already drawn up. Starting agents get the same contract that the main agent in a company (if there are more than one) have already negotiated. And as a business model, they seem to advise: Go for whatever you can get upfront. There's plenty of reasons for this.
And sometimes if a series doesn't do well, the author doesn't get a second chance with that agent or with that publisher. The agents know this. That means the agent has to work to sell another series from scratch IF that agent decides to stick with the author.
The business models are changing though, because an author can take unpublished books and publish themselves. Of course, publishers put in clauses that forbid them to use the same characters/world and self-publish. They do not want authors to even consider making it on their own. Some publishers are more strict about this than others. Some publishers have even tried putting in clauses that forbid the author to publish ANY other work via self-publishing while under contract with the publisher. I don't know how that is working out, but I know some authors were burned by the clause. Whether it's still being inserted? I don't know.