RE: Royalty Based on Print Runs

**"Jeff Ball" j*@starband.net**

Doreen,
I have not published a book for about ten years, though I am working on one
now.  After 8 books I got a sense of the process, but probably not as much
as I should have.  The bottom line is the Profit and Loss Statement (PAL in
some companies).  Here the experts in the company, after they look at your
proposal, calculate how many books they think they will sell in the first
year, and maybe in the second year.  They want to have a sales level to give
them a profit of some sort in the first year.  They know a whole lot more
than we do about how a book is going to sell.  If they have a known author,
such as Doreen Howard, they will treat that PAL statement a bit differently
than if they had a proposal from Joe Sixpack.  They will decide on the
advance as a function of their estimates of return on investment for the
first year. the number of books to be printed is all part of that decision
making process.  I think that is dumb, since my books have been making money
for over twenty years after publication, but that is how I understand they
think. But I suspect they have published enough duds to be wary.   They want
to be able to publish a book, get their profit in one year and walk away if
they so decide.  Now with quarterly revenues being the name of the game,
maybe they want quarterly results, I don't' know.  In any case, I go on the
assumption, as did my agents, that every new book contract with the same
publisher deserved an increase in front end advance.  If I was going to a
new publisher, then I, or my agent, argued that I should not get less than I
had in the last book from the last publisher.  The assumption from your side
is that if a publisher wants to publish a second or third or fifth book from
you, then you have been identified as an author able to produce a book that
creates profits.  Otherwise, you would not have gotten your second book
contract. I had one experience, once in a lifetime,  where the discussion
started at one figure and by the time we worked out the deal, it was six
times higher.  That is in part a function of having a good agent and in part
a function of knowing that you have a good story to tell and that you know
there is a market for that story.  Other folks in this list may have other
opinions, but then that is why we have this list.
Go get em.
Jeff Ball

-----Original Message-----
From: gardenwriters-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[g*@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Doreen Howard
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 3:07 PM
To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [GWL] Royalty Based on Print Runs

A question for you experienced book authors.  Are royalty advances based on
the number of books a publisher prints in the first run?  Or is it another
formula?  Would it be reasonable to request a bigger advance when the
publisher plans to print 50,000 books, for example, on the first run, than
10,000?
Doreen Howard

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