So, deal signed on July 9, first check maybe on September 25th. Just last week we got a direct deposit of a client’s check DAYS after the contract is signed. With the DocuSign set up, it’s often easier for the editor (afaik) to hit the Pay the Author Now button. But you might not have this opportunity and it could take another 2-3 weeks for everything to get signed and sealed. YAY! This is an area of publishing that’s embracing technology and making EVERYTHING BETTER. It’s ready, so you sign, and the publisher uses an electronic signature program like DocuSign, and you’re able to sign and send back your contract in an hour and the next day you have a countersigned agreement signed by all parties in your inbox. Let’s say everyone’s super quick about that and the changes are light (because your agent already has a great boilerplate with that publisher and has already fought for all the big things) and it takes two weeks from receipt of the first draft contract until you get a version you can read and sign, if it’s ready. Your agent will take a few days to vet the contract and then send any changes back to the publisher. Maybe sooner, but things are slower in the summer, so we say in publishing (it’s not actually true, except when it is). Given that it’s mid-ish July, that contract isn’t going to come in until close to Labor Day.
You can quit your job now, right? $20k might pay most or all of your mortgage for a year, right? Maybe you have a partner whose job pays for food and provides health insurance! Great! But let’s look at when the checks actually come, and how much they are. Let’s say you sealed the deal with your agent and new editor yesterday.
Very likely, you’ll be paid that advance in halves, $10k when you sign the contract and $10k when the publisher accepts your final manuscript and all the editing is done. $20k is a nice round number and not a bad deal for a debut in this economy. A lot of things, merit based and not, go into figuring out an advance, but for argument’s sake, here, let’s say you get a $20,000 advance for your debut novel.
So, as you probably know, book publishers pay authors an advance against future royalty earnings. I don’t think I’ll even quit my job tbh, even if I got a monster book deal. Even I’ve thought about it and I love my job. It might not be your dream right now, or ever, and that’s ok, but if you’re writing, novels or long form non-fiction, don’t lie and say you’ve never thought about it.
Writefull books full#
In my continuing quest to give you real talk about publishing, I want to break down how you achieve the dream-how you can quit your job and write full time.
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