September 10, 2005 6:46 PM
A writer's economic reality
Just to bring you up to speed on the reality of writers and their books:
Contracts for writers like me who aren't superstars typically pay 12-14 percent of the publisher's net sales. That means when someone pays the list price of $12.99 at a bookstore, I make approximately 78 cents. And if they buy it at anything below list, it means the publisher has given a deep discount and I get even less.
That's okay. That's just the way it works. And I'm not writing to make money, but because I like to communicate. It's so tough getting published, most of us are just grateful it somwhow happened for us.
Another thing that might surprise you: writers have to buy their own books from their publishers. So if my book has a list price of 12.99, I pay 6.50 for it myself.
If it were otherwise, I'd give them away like candy, believe me!
Comments
Well, then you made another 78 cents this week because I just ordered "DDattheProm". Wow. That's eye-opening!
Posted by: floorplan | September 12, 2005 11:18 AM
