Quote:
Originally Posted by natasharhodes
I got paid around four thousand pounds (US $6k) for my first Sci Fi book, the novelization of a very popular summer blockbuster movie starring Wesley Snipes back in 2004. In the usual Work-For-Hire method, I was paid 2k on signing and 2k within 30 days of completion.
I wrote four more movie novelizations (turning movies into books) for the same price. Each book took me 2-6 months from the time I received the movie script to the time I handed in the finished manuscript. Although each printing sold out many times over, I never received a penny of royalties because I did not actually 'write' these movie, I just turned the 97-page script into a 400-page book (not hard but definitely time-consuming).
After that I was given my own sci-fi/ fantasy series by the same company, a werewolf/ Vampire series. Unfortunately as I was still considered a 'new' author, my payment for the original series was slashed in half to two thousand pounds per book.
As writing an original novel takes considerably longer than simply turning a script into prose, each book took me just over a year. On average I'd say I put 5-8 hours a day into writing each book (working early mornings, late nights, lunchbreaks and all day most weekends).
That works out at a payment of five pounds ($8) a day for all that work.
I've so far written three books in the series, with a ten percent royalty rate, and have yet to see a penny of royalties. I'm told the series is a 'solid seller' for the company, but as the company does not market my book and I have so little time to promote it with my day job, each book only just 'earns out' the advance I was paid for each book.
Hard reality? Maybe. Enjoyable? Definitely. Will I be quitting my day job any time soon? Unfortunately not.....
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Wow they should pay you more you are putting your time into this. I'm just starting writing again and am more than likely going to go the e-book route. I've been looking into writing for years and even worked in a book store and talked to local author's. From what I've seen even if you have a good idea unless you're lucky or damned talented you'll only make chump change. I hope it works out for you and you can make a living of your work.