# How much $$$$?



## NYXTaxiDriver (Mar 19, 2011)

Hi, what is the typical book deal advance for a major publishing house? How about a minor one? Also, is there any way to tell how many copies of a book have been sold in total? What is the typical % of profits that an author receives?


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## Ilasir Maroa (Mar 19, 2011)

That's way too many compliecated questions, and to be honest, the answers aren't going to help you very much.

Major publishers generally pay between $5,000 and $50,000 dollars for a normal advance, depending on genre, marketability, and whether there was competition for the manuscript.  Small presses may pay between $1,000 and $10,000, with most being towards the lower end, but some paying higher.  There is absolutely no way to tell exactly how many copies of a book have been sold in total.  Nielsen Bookscan tends to catch around 70%.  Authors generally recieve between 8% and 15% off the cover price of ever book sold, but some smaller presses pay more.  It also varies between hardback and paperback.  That's gross, though.  You'll probably owe your agent 15% of that, and then taxes take between 20% and 40%.


(That's a very simplistic answer.)


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## garza (Mar 19, 2011)

But it covers the ground about as well as any answer could. That's why agents were invented


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## NYXTaxiDriver (Mar 19, 2011)

I just remembered, I had a friend a few years ago from Tennessee who got a book deal, 200-300k right off the bat, first book, it was an autobiographical book about her country life. That was lucky.


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## Ilasir Maroa (Mar 19, 2011)

NYXTaxiDriver said:


> I just remembered, I had a friend a few years ago from Tennessee who got a book deal, 200-300k right off the bat, first book, it was an autobiographical book about her country life. That was lucky.



That's very lucky for her.  Very few people get advances that high.


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