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Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Referring back to Ms Aubrey, the papers said that she turned down a 6 figure advance. In reality, the advance was in 3 increments over a period of 3 books and only if the first book sold wonderfully.
So it is possible that 80k was more like 25k.
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Similarly, Steve Hamilton got a 7-figure deal after his agent bought his way out of his old contract, but it is a four book deal. So it is really $250k per book, of which his agent get $37K, taxes get another $70K-plus, and each book advance is spread over two years or more. It's relatively good money but he's an award-winning, 20-year veteran. A newcomer isn't going to get that unless he's related to some insider.
A more typical breakdown for a successful tradpub author will look more like this:
http://mainecrimewriters.com/kates-p...-get-published
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There are a lot of expenses involved in promoting a book. Many readers (and even writers aspiring to be published) don’t realize how many expenses are not covered by the publisher. For example: designing and maintaining a website, designing and printing publicity materials like flyers and bookmarks, buying copies of the book to give to people who’d helped me during the writing process, and buying copies of galleys to mail out for reviews, along with the expenses of the 3000 miles I put on my car.
And that’s not all. I was lucky enough to have Death Dealer be named an Agatha finalist, so I attended the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda in June, along with Sleuthfest in Florida in February. With airfare, hotels, and registration, a conference can easily cost a thousand dollars. In addition, I decided to take a chance on hiring a publicist to see if I could break out and get my books greater recognition.
Even when a book earns royalties, publisher routinely pay them only once or twice a year, and usually several months after the money has been earned, and traditionally hold back part of those earnings “against returns.”
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The tradpub reality of 2014-15 is nothing like the reality apologists like Shatzkin remember from their good old days of the last century.