So what's everyone's opinion on "royalties only" contracts? My sister signed one to do illustrations for a book, slaved for hours creating beautiful paintings, and only earned $100.
Of course she did get in print. She can now put that on her bio.
But what about for us authors? What if it is a respectable, reputable publishing house and not just a vanity press, and they offer you a "royalties only" contract? Is it an automatic "no way?"
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Rebecca, I hope you don't mind if I spew what I know about this subject. If you get bored, just stop reading.
There are lots of ways authors get paid that are legitimate (not like when agents charge you money to look at your work, which is not legit). Illustrators are in a whole different ball game and if they get royalties, it is usually a lot less than the author. Often they get a flat fee. I have done work for hire (WFH) and been paid a few hundred dollars as a flat fee that was agreed upon beforehand. You could also be paid an hourly wage or by the word. Cricket Magazine pays by the word, or used to. Some publishing houses offer advances against royalties. And some just offer royalties. If you get an advance against royalties it could be as low as two or three thousand dollars up to millions. What you are gambling on with a low advance is that your book will sell enough so you actually get royalties once they exceed the advance already paid to you. If you get a high advance, you are gambling that your book won't sell much more than what your royalties would come to if they equaled your advance. Rick Walton, who helped organize our conference, goes for the lower advances so he can have royalties coming in later, but I know other authors who go for the higher advances and just keep pumping out books so they keep getting advances. If a publisher ever asks you to pay them, they are what is known as a vanity press. Vanity presses can be a way to get a book published and make some money, but it takes a huge marketing effort on the part of the author. Richard Paul Evans published The Christmas Box with a vanity press and then marketed the heck out of it and sold enough copies so that a New York publisher bought the rights and marketed it some more and made a ton of money. Now there are the self-publishing options with Amazon and others that are other ways to get your book out. Personally, I want my stuff to be good enough that a big time publisher wants to publish it, but that is just my opinion.
Thanks, Dene. I'm glad to be able to draw on your expertise.
As a beginner, I almost don't care if I get paid for my work, I just want to be able to go down to Barnes&Noble and see my book on the shelf, you know.
But I also want to strike a professional pose. If only suckers go for "royalties only" contracts, then I want to know how not to look like a sucker.
You *deserve* to be paid for your hard work! :)
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