Ever Wondered what happens at the RWA National Conference? I just posted an article at www.AWritersTools.com that will give you the lowdown.
Paychecks Publishers Never Talk About May 13, 2009
Paychecks Publishers Never Talk About
Posted using ShareThis
Have you ever wondered, “How much will I make on my first book?” How about, “How much can I expect to get for a book advance?” Of course everyone has wondered, “When can I quit my day job once I’m published?” Sadly, the truth is it may take YEARS for you to make enough money as a published novelist, and exact answers are hard to find. What one publishing house is willing to pay for a first book, another may not be. Truth be told, one publishing house editor once revealed to me that most “first books” do not sell more than 100 copies. At 6% of retail on 100 books (let’s say $6.99 per book), you could probably expect to make as little as $45. (Ouch.)
However, there is a ray of hope in this dismal situation. Brenda Hiatt’s website (www.BrendaHiatt.com) has a section she calls “Show Me the Money.” In this section, Brenda has interviewed hundreds of romance authors about the different books they’ve published. Her results include how much authors have received for advances and earn-outs. The end results were fascinating.
Following are three tables displaying the “Top Ten” for Average Advances, Earn Outs, and Commissions. With these handy little charts, you can see where you may want to submit your book first, and how much you could hope to make.
Top 10 Publishing Houses For
Average Advance (First Book)
| Publishing House | Average Advance (1st Book) |
| Avon/HarperCollins | $17,000 |
| $12,000 | |
| Tor/Forge | $11,000 |
| Dutton/Signet/NAL | $9,200 |
| HQN | $8,500 |
| Berkley/Jove | $7,800 |
| St. Martin’s Press | $6,600 |
| Grand Central Publishing (Warner) | $6,500 |
| Harlequin Superromance | $5,000 |
| Silhouette Desire | $4,500 |
Top 10 Publishing Houses For
Average Advance (Subsequent Books)
| Publishing House | Average Advance (Subsequent Books) |
| St. Martin’s Press | $40,500 |
| Dutton/Signet/NAL | $30,000 |
| HQN | $20,500 |
| $19,000 | |
| Bantam/Dell | $16,000 |
| Tor/Forge | $14,000 |
| Dorchester/Leisure | $13,000 |
| Grand Central Publishing (Warner) | $13,000 |
| Red Dress Ink | $12,000 |
| Berkley/Jove | $8,100 |
Top 4 Publishing Houses For
Highest Print Royalties
| Publishing House | Highest Royalties for Print Books |
| Medallion Press | 10% |
| Five Star/Thorndike (hardcover) | 10% |
| Avalon | 10% |
| Cobblestone | 10% |
Top 10 Publishing Houses For
Average Earnings
| Publishing House | Average Earnings |
| Avon/HarperCollins | $23,000 |
| Harlequin Superromance | $18,500 |
| Silhouette Special Edition | $17,500 |
| Silhouette Desire | $16,500 |
| Harlequin Intrigue | $15,100 |
| Harlequin Blaze | $12,500 |
| Silhouette Romantic Suspense (SIM) | $12,000 |
| Harlequin Historical | $12,000 |
| Steeple Hill (Love Inspired) | $10,900 |
| Berkley/Jove | $8,400 |
Top 10 Publishing Houses For
Highest Total Earnings
| Publishing House | Highest total Earnings |
| Harlequin Superromance | $40,000 |
| Avon/HarperCollins | $35,000 |
| Berkley/Jove | $32,000 |
| Harlequin Intrigue | $26,000 |
| Silhouette Special Edition | $23,000 |
| Silhouette Desire | $23,000 |
| Harlequin Historical | $19,000 |
| Steeple Hill (Love Inspired) | $18,000 |
| Kensington/Zebra | $17,800 |
| Harlequin Blaze | $15,000 |
Ms. Hiatt’s interviews also show that you can hope to negotiate the following for your first romantic novel:
· Advance for a first book = approximately $4,000
· Average Advance for subsequent books = $7,000
· Royalties = 6% to 7%
· Total Average Earnings Per Book = $9,000
I guess that’s why published writers always say “We don’t do this for the money. We do this for the love of writing.”
A WRITER’S TOOLS: Knowing IF “You’re Just Not That Good” at Writing March 10, 2009
Recently, while watching the movie “He’s Just Not That Into You”, I had one of Oprah’s Ah Ha Moments. In the very beginning of that movie, the narrator discusses the concept of how women comfort each other when men go M.I.A. They tell each other, “It wasn’t you; he just wasn’t ready for a serious relationship,” “He’s just intimidated by what a strong woman you are,” and “He’s mean to you because he likes you.” Yet, what they should be saying to each other is… “Run!!! Run for your life!!! He is not worth it!”
This kind of lesson has a crossover into our lives as writers. Unpublished writers often wonder, “Why am I not getting published? Why do I keep getting rejected?” Yet your friends and family tell you, ““OMG, this is so good; it is the next bestseller.” People closer to the industry will tell you, “That type of book is no longer trendy,” and “Publishers are no longer buying your genre.” What they should probably be saying is, “This piece just isn’t good enough…but it could be with more work.”
So the question becomes, can you really trust your friends and family to give you the cruelest, most honest opinion possible? Or are they more likely to tell you words that comfort, like the women in “He’s Just Not That Into You”?
If you really want an answer to the question “Am I good enough”, there is a place online where you can go and get your work judged: You need Helium…dot com. This website has four different ways of telling you if your writing is good enough. Those ways include:
- Judgment by your peers. In this writing community, you pick a topic you want to write about and submit your work. Other website writers on the website will then judge whose work they think is best without any fore knowledge of author identity. On a day-to-day basis, you can see where your articles rank among your peers and which pieces could have benefitted from more revision. Furthermore, other writers can provide comments on your work, which can be valuable feedback should you wish to update and improve your article.
- Payment for your work. Whether your article becomes number one, or number twenty, you still get paid for each article. However, due to the variation in article payments, you will soon see which of your topics did best, and which ones did nothing. In a very short period of time, you will be able to determine where your expertise excites readers, and where it is ignored.
- Weekly Contests on a variety of topics. Each contest offers $25 compensation for winning articles. The winner is chosen by the anonymous ratings they get from other writers, the number of high ranking articles they write in a specific category, and being in the top 55% of the ratings. Again, your work is judged by writers making the feedback impartial, and any victory sweeter.
- A Writer’s Marketplace where you can sell your articles. At Helium.com, there is a Writer’s Marketplace where magazine companies post assignments and compensation amounts. Like the contests, writers compete, and then the magazine company purchases and publishes the article they like best. This is a great way to know if your writing is magazine-worthy or not.
So what are you waiting for? If you this is a question that’s been plaguing you, sign up for a profile today and begin e-publishing your own work. In no time, you’ll have an answer.
My NaNoWriMo Experience December 10, 2008
“Kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me…”
That’s how I got through NaNoWriMo. I just wrote that single phrase over and over until I hit 50K words.
Just kidding. That is specifically NOT allowed in NaNoWriMo. (I checked.) You are also NOT allowed to work on a previous work in progress, and you don’t get to count words you quoted from other writers.
So, now that you have an idea of the basic rules of NaNo, you may be wondering how “I survived.” How did I make it to 52K words in 30 days while also taking care of my family, cooking Thanksgiving dinner, going to Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, putting together the LARA newsletter, and working a full time job. Well, it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t impossible either. It was doable. And here’s how I did it.
When I first committed to NaNo, I was terrified. I thought to myself, “This is an impossible task for me. The most I have ever written in a month is 20K words. Heck, I can’t even get through SPEW week without perpetually falling short. What on earth makes me think I can succeed at this HUGE goal?” And then I realized, what I was feeling was F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real), and I can’t live my life that way.
So I signed up and set up my NaNo profile. I added my LARA friends, and I began right around midnight on November 2nd (a day late and a dollar short, as usual). And guess what happened. I immediately fell behind. I don’t mean I fell behind on my writing goal…not at all. I fell behind Christine Ashworth, and Christine London, and Donna Reynolds. I fell into “last place” on what soon became a race to the finish.
You see, what you don’t know about NaNo is that you can see everyone else’s progress through your profile. For someone as competitive as myself, this was the kick in the arse that I needed. Every time I sat down to write, I would check “My Buddies” progress and see who was just ahead of me. Then, I would think “I only need to write 500 words tonight to beat Christine Ashworth” and I would make that my goal. As soon as I passed her, I would look to see who was next, and then think “Okay, now I only need 700 words to beat Christine London.” And so on and so forth. And that was how I did it. I was no longer staring at the big “50K” at the finish line; I was focusing on the baby steps of annihilating someone else in my own personal vendetta race. Did the other writers know I was doing this? Probably not. But I have a feeling they were doing the same thing. Everyday I turned on my computer, they would have passed me…no matter how far ahead I had gotten the day before.
So after about three weeks of baby steps, I suddenly realized two things. 1) I could write 5K words in just a couple hours. It was easy to do, and my scenes seemed more realistic when I focused on producing a huge number instead of “just writing a quick scene.” And 2) I wrote 50K words in 18 days because I took 12 days off to do my own thing. So if my goal is so doable in such a short period of time, why aren’t I doing it everyday? What was I really afraid of?
The answer to that last question is: I was afraid of the thought of 50K words. I was afraid of committing and failing. But now that I’ve accomplished NaNo, I’m no longer afraid. I now know that I can write 50K words, and my confidence has doubled. After more than ten years of feeling like a “wanna be,” I finally feel like a writer in truth. It was liberating, and I definitely plan on doing it again…and again…and again.
I hope you join me next year.
(This article was published in the December 2008 edition of LARA Confidential, the newsletter for the Los Angeles Romance Authors Chapter of the RWA.)
How to Make Money with Your Blog November 20, 2008
For anyone who loves to blog, here are a few tips on how to turn that past time into a paying gig. These five tips are easy to do and implement, and can really make a difference in what you blog.
Whether you are blogging for fun or for your future career, you can turn a profit on your blog right now by following a few simple steps. They are easy and free, and it only takes a few extra minutes each time you blog to supplement your income. These tips will help you get money month after month, even long after you’ve stopped blogging. Go to these websites today and get 
started making money now.
-
If You Don’t Have a Blog Already, I Highly Recommend WordPress
Although there are many great blogging sites, WordPress makes it so easy to share your blogs and cross promote, it will instantly make you feel like a Blogging Pro. As an added bonus, anytime anyone mentions your blog, it shows up immediately in your comments section. It’s a great way to see who is marketing you as an expert while also receiving sweat-free access to a potential audience.
-
Next, Go To Helium.Com
Helium is an excellent tool for any writer. Not only does this fabulous site give you hundreds of ideas on what to write about, but you can also have other writers rate your articles thus giving you an idea of how talented you may be, or how much harder you may need to work. Offering paying jobs and contests on a weekly basis, this website can actually grow your income quickly while also supplying much needed inspiration.
-
Now Go To Triond.com
One of the best things about Triond is that this website publishes dozens of websites for all types of writing genres. Whether you want to publish a basic How-To blog, submit a poem, or even just post a picture, you can send it to Triond and they will find the right website for it. Then sit back and watch those same articles make money month after month, even when you’re sick of blogging and would rather shoot yourself then write one more word. (Just remember, if you are going to submit the same article to both companies, alter it so that you will not have to worry about copyright issues.)
-
Once You’ve Submitted Your Blog, It’s Time to Digg It
At Triond and Helium, you make money when people read your blogs at their sites. The best way to get your readers to those sites is to create links from your personal blog. Digg.com takes all of the guesswork out of this step when you submit it to their website. All you have to do is click on the Digg link at the bottom of your newly posted article and follow the posting steps, the last being to post the article to your personal blog. Then just copy and paste the first couple paragraphs into the description, and your work is done. As an added bonus, you can also promote your blogs by sending them to your Digg-friends and asking them to “Digg It,” thus increasing your readership and income potential.
-
Lastly, Stumble Your Article
Sign up for a Stumbleupon.com account and be sure to download their handy toolbar. Then, whenever you post a new blog, just give that blog a “thumbs up” and ask your Stumble friends to do the same. For each thumbs up you get, Stumbleupon will direct approximately 200 people to that posting. (Just be careful when using Stumbleupon since it can be a highly addicting website.)
In the beginning, you will only earn pocket change for each blog. But, blogging in this fashion will soon have a snowball effect. Every blog you write will intrigue your readers to look at other blogs. The more people read and return to your blogs, the more money you make. Your articles will keep making you money for years as long as you are a busy blogger. This is how many bloggers on the Net make six-figure blogging incomes. Think about it. How lovely would it be to supplement your income while waiting to finally make the National Bestsellers list? You’ve got nothing to lose, and huge profits to gain.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=004558c6-8fed-4def-bb00-608eaf28599a)
Everything I Learned About Blogging I Learned From Triond November 6, 2008
There is so much great content on Triond to read, but what I’ve learned about blogging has been invaluable. Here are five notable writers and their articles that have taken my writing to a whole new level.
I have to say, without a doubt, I love writing with Triond. Having never even known that I could create such a thing as a Blog, I have to say that I owe my success thus far to Triond and it’s awesome community of writers. Here are a few writers who have especially impacted my career, and what I’ve learned so far from their articles relating to freelance writing.
Anne Lyken Garner
- Get a Blog to Promote Your Work
In Anne’s article “10 Reasons Why You Should Have Your Own Blog,” I learned that having a blog is an essential tool for any writer that wants to become a successful freelancer. Not only will it keep you writing, but it makes it easy for your readers to find all of your work no matter where you write. It can also act as a Writer’s resume when you are trying to find that “Big Break”…getting paper published as well as web published.
Darlene McFarlane
- Use Sub-Headings to Make Your Work More Interesting to Internet Users.
In her article “How to Get Your Articles Read,” Darlene lists six great ways to get people interested in your work. While I love all of her suggestions, I found that using sub-headings in my work to make my points up front actually made my articles more popular. In particular, when I wrote for Helium’s website where other writers rate your work, articles that had sub-headings moved quickly to the premiere positions. When you consider that the average Internet surfer will spend an average of nine seconds browsing through a website, I found this advice to be ingenious and invaluable.
ICYCUCKY
- Other Writers Can Be a Valuable Tool in Regards to Your Writing Career.
In IcyCucky’s article “Five Powerful Reasons to Write for Triond,” I learned that Triond does have a really great community of writers, which can be beneficial to any writer. Not only can another writer’s comments guide you to write better each and every time you sit at your computer, but through the My Community tab, it is now easy to communicate with the other writers on the site and really get to know the people you admire so much. Plus, writers can actually help each other market their articles and work their way to writing success. I, personally, have been humbled at how many of my favorite writers are willing to e-mail me and offer advice.
Jared Stenzel
- Stumbleupon is a Great Way to Get Your Articles Viewed by Thousands.
In Jared’s article, “How to Effectively Increase Traffic Through Stumbleupon,” I learned that not only is Stumbleupon easy for submitting your work, but it’s actually fun to use. You simply add their toolbar and you can give a thumbs up to all of your friends work as well as your own. Within hours, you can have hundreds and even thousands of people see your work. In addition, you can get more people to give your articles a thumbs up if you include an interesting title that catches Stumblers’ attention right up front.
Louie Jerome
- Digg Can Be a Great Tool in Making Your Articles a Huge Success.
In Louie’s article “How to Succeed on Digg: A Simple Step by Step Guide,” I learned that Digg is an invaluable tool in promoting articles, and that it is highly addictive. It’s easy to add friends, and you should make comments on the more popular articles to get your name recognized and have other people add you as a friend. Since reading her article, I’ve also learned that you can easily “Share” your articles with as many as 100 people at a time, which many other sites will not allow you to do. (Also see her article about “How to Get More Reads with Stumbleupon.”)
To all of the other writers at Triond, don’t think that I don’t love and reference your articles over and over again. I just found some of these tips to be the most useful when it comes to blogging.
