Hi there. My name is Scott Duffy, and welcome to my book writing log. I have documented the process of writing my last two books on this site, and have started my third. This book will be called Visual Studio Team System In Action, and should be available in 2005.

Royalties and Advances

Each deal, of course, is a bit different. But in my four book deals, there has been some similarities as well.

The first thing you're likely to care about is the advance. The advance is the amount of money a publisher will pay you in advance of your book being written and/or published. The most important thing to know about an advance is that it is a loan against future royalties. So if author A received a $5,000 advance while author B received a $10,000 advance, that just means that author B will have to sell twice as many copies of his book in order to start making any more money.

The second thing to take note of is the royalty rate. I get 10% of net sales. Net sales, as best as I can determine, is the amount the publisher receives from the booksellers minus the amount of any returns. It is NOT the cover price. My book retails for $24.99 and sells for $17.49 at Amazon.com. From my latest statement, it appears the publisher gets $11.81 per copy from booksellers (wholesale price). I get $1.18 per copy (or 10%). Also, if your book suffers from a high number of returns (ie: books that did not sell at the bookstore and get sent back to the publisher for a refund), that reduces your royalties.

If your book does not sell enough copies to earn back the advance, you do not have to pay it back.