Authors earnings

[Dr Jekyll]

Perhaps should be in the finance section. But roughly how much would a successful author (say half a million copies mainly paperback) make?

Just wondering about the authors that keep getting published but aren't in the JK Rowling Dan Brown league.

[droopsnoot]

I've wondered similar. A mate of mine is an author but struggles to get anyone interested in his books, and just happened to call when the news was full of James Patterson earning something like $239 million in a single year. There must be plenty in-between.

[Mr E]

Charles Stross has a blog and in one post breaks down the process and costs comprehensively.

I found it an interesting series;

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/0...

[Slushbox]

I had a couple of succesful books published in the past. The answer is always 'it depends.' Publishers contracts are minefields of dis-information and obfustications. My last was over thirty pages long.

The UK is a relatively small market controlled by a cartel of publishers and distributors, and contracts can be heavy-handed. Royalty payments tended to be based on the wholesale discount prices, not the retail, less customer returns, and occasionally, less distribution costs and publicity copies. An author might receive 10-12% of the wholesale price which is about 1/3rd of retail. Or less.

Syndication/re-publishing rights are often given away for peanuts by UK authors, so most of the successful ones will have a literary agent to sift through the mire or publish in the US first.

Three years after my first book was published, I received a large negative royalty statement. WH Smith had ordered two pallets worth of books, warehoused them for three years, then returned them to the distributor.

I didn't pay the publisher so every statement after that was always negative. I got a 'proper' job.

Edited by Slushbox on Friday 7th October 11:33