by Bobbie Christmas
Q: I received a letter from the publisher I’d submitted my novel to. She says if I’m selected, her prices or advance is competitive. I don’t have a clue as to what a fledgling writer gets for a novel. Any answers?
A: An average offer is around five to six percent of sales—and make sure your contract stipulates royalties are based on the retail price, not the wholesale price, of the book.
The amount of royalties you make depends on the amount of sales of the book, so you would do well to get out there and promote the book personally as much as possible. Most publishers don’t do much promotion, especially for a new author.
You probably were hoping I’d say the publisher would send you a million dollars as an advance against royalties, but in reality, publishers don’t have to offer you an advance at all. Some publishers do, when they feel fairly certain the book will sell enough copies to cover the advance. I’ve heard of publishers that offered anywhere from a token advance, such as $50, on up to a million or more. The million-dollar advances usually go to people who already have well-known names—politicians or entertainers. Madonna, for example, got a sizeable advance on her first children’s book, supposedly around $1.2 million. Bill Clinton received a $15 million advance for his 2004 memoir, and although the details were not released, Obama is said to have received a $65 million advance. If you are as famous as those people, you too can negotiate a huge advance.
If you aren’t famous, though, you can almost always expect to feel disappointed with the advance you may be offered, if any, but the royalty amounts, although slightly negotiable, tend to stay in the five percent to six percent range. If you are offered more, be happy. Sometimes a publisher will offer a higher royalty rate in exchange for giving no advance. Note that while advances against royalties may be highly negotiable, the actual royalty rate doesn’t have much room for negotiation. I was able to negotiate an advance that was twice as high as the first offer the publisher made, but the percentage of royalties was six percent and nonnegotiable.
I need to add that some publishers—not traditional publishers—may offer higher royalties when you pay all or part of the publishing costs.
Q: When ghostwriting a book, what percentage of the royalties should I ask for?
A: The answer depends on several factors and may not be a percentage at all. Let me explain.
First, if your client is a traditional publisher, the publisher will likely set the percentage you will receive for ghosting a book it assigns you. You may be able to negotiate that percentage, so it’s worth a try. If the publisher wants you to make the first offer, you can start at a 70/30 arrangement, with you getting 70 percent of the royalties for doing most of the work. Chances are the figure will be negotiated down to a more traditional 60/40 arrangement, but as in all negotiations, if you start at a number higher than you expect, the other person can negotiate the number down and feel he has accomplished something and that you showed a willness to compromise.
If your client is not a traditional publisher but a person who will be listed as the author, though, that scenario changes everything, and you have many things to consider. Remember that many manuscripts get written, but few ever get sold to traditional publishers. If you arrange with a client to write a book on the chance that he or she might sell it to a publisher, you will likely never see a penny of royalties, because the chances of publication are low. Even if the author sells the book to a publisher, as the ghostwriter you may not have access to the sales records and therefore may not know what, if anything, is due you. If your client plans to self-publish, the sales records for self-published books are not great, and again, you won’t have access to the sales information. For these reasons I strongly advise ghostwriters not to work on a percentage of sales when they work with individuals.
The more professional and lucrative way to ghostwrite for a person—not a publisher—is to determine how much work will be involved, quote a price, and require the client to pay part or all of the money before you begin working. If the book later sells, the client gets all the royalties, but you don’t have to track the sales. You might even make more money on the book than your client will, unless your client is as famous as Barack Obama.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more Ask the Book Doctor questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.
