Real Talk for Writers

with Isabel Sterling

Advances, Royalties, & All-Time Earnings advance author finances royalties spreadsheets taxes Jun 16, 2025

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...