A Little Shot Of Reality

November 9, 2009

Spyscribbler pointed me to a post about the royalty statements by a New York Times bestselling paperback original author. It's totally depressing, but a significant shot of reality. One of the things that's probably most interesting to me that's sort of new, is it's the first time I've ever heard anybody make a stab at comparing how much an author makes on a book compared to how much the publisher makes on the book. In this case, she had a $50,000 advance (and with 80,000+ sold and about 22,000 returned), probably no significant royalties showing up, she estimates the publisher makes, after their expenses, maybe $250,000.

I'm reminded rather brutally reminded of an interview I once read with Burt Reynolds. He asked his son what he wanted to do when he grew up and his son said be a producer. Burt asked him why. His son said, "Whenever we're at actors' houses, I see photographs on the walls of other actors. Whenever we're at producers' houses, they have Picasso's and Monet's on their walls."