S. Worthen | Weblog

Academic books with a small print run (hundreds rather than thousands)? Or non-fiction books for a larger audience?

I'm afraid to say that small-run academic books aren't going to make you rich. Depending on how well known an author is and how big the press, the advance might even be as small as US$1000 (eek). I guess that's one reason academic books tend to be written by people ensconced in academic jobs and not those who have left the academy. The reason to write an academic book is more to further your career and to increase the knowledge available in your field than for direct personal gain, but I'm sure you know that already!

As for nonfiction for a wider audience, well, if you're Harold Bloom or you're writing something high-profile like the Cambridge Guide to Whatever, you could get a five-figure advance (lower for Cambridge, higher for Harold Bloom). If you're writing highly commercial non-fiction (I want to write a book called Eat and Grow Rich--can you imagine the sales?) for a major publisher that's going to put a lot of time and money into publicity and expects worldwide sales, the high five or low six figure range might not be out of your grasp.

If you're offered a low advance and your publisher refuses to bump it up, you can always try to negotiate a favourable royalty structure. That way if sales exceed what the publisher is anticipating you'll get a little more money out of the deal.

Anyway, these figures aren't set in stone, it's just what I've gathered from speaking to a few agents and reading the publishing press. Perhaps I'm estimating a little too low on the worst-case academic side, but I'd be surprised if I was very far out.

And hell, if you're writing for someone like Brill who prices their books way out of the range of most people you can make better return asking for a slew of extra copies for yourself - if the book is priced at $125, and you ask for another 20 or 30...