Real Talk for Writers

How (and when!) you make money from publishing a book is affected by a number of different sections of your publishing contract. 

It's not just about the size of your advance!

In this issue of Real Talk for Writers, I'm breaking down the major sections of a typical publishing contract that impact ...

It's royalty season!

At least, for my books that were published by Razorbill (which was folded into Putnam a few years back).

If you missed my initial royalty break down (which included additional details about the first royalty period for each book), you can check that out here.

I also want to...

This week's issue of Real Talk for Writers came as a request from a few debut authors that I know. There is so rarely transparency when it comes to sales numbers (author Jason June being one of the rare exceptions -- the royalty posts on his newsletter inspired some of my formatting this week), whic...

As an industry, publishing tends to be shrouded in mystery. Especially when it comes to numbers. 

It’s rare for authors to talk publicly about how much money they make or how many copies of their books they sell.

There’s lots of euphemisms: “Oh, it was a fairly small advance” or “the book did okay...