Lynn Viehl posted her entire royalty statement here. And her post about it is right on the money and very clear. You ever wonder what it takes to hit the New York Times extended bestseller list? You want to have a few myths crushed? Go read this post. Great information.
And make sure you click on her link and look at the actual royalty statement if you have never seen one. They are different from every publisher.
Cheers, Dean
Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith has written more than one hundred popular novels and well over two hundred published short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He writes under many pen names and has also ghosted for a number of top bestselling writers.
Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.
Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He is now an executive editor for Fiction River.
WMG Publishing Inc. is now my major publisher of all my coming novels, collections, and short stories.
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Thanks for the link, Dean!
You know, I just heard the other day that the mass market best seller list would get you in the 30-50k advance range. I was sort of surprised by that. I mean, I hadn’t really crunched the numbers to see how many books that meant, but I sort of assumed it was higher. Well, I think I’ve always thought of it as in addition to hard cover. It never really occurred to me to think what a direct to mass market best seller would be worth.
So, a 50K advance – 19th on the Best seller list – almost earned out in 6 months.
Always fascinating to see numbers like that! Thanks!
No doubt she’s going to get more money on the next contract. Just for getting that close.
But there are a lot of books that have higher numbers, much higher numbers and don’t slide anywhere near a list at the same time. It takes a number of factors, one of which she has rabid fans who rush out to buy the book in the first week out. That’s a key.
Also note she debunks the self promotion myth. She does none. Period.
Cheers
Dean
What I also noticed is that she’s in the 30% tax bracket, if the government got $15K of her $50K advance. She must be doing pretty well, all books combined.
Wow, that’s some good reality therapy.
Thanks, Dean, for passing along the link.
Very interesting to see the actual numbers.
I’ve always wondered why publishing doesn’t promote their specific sales numbers, unlike movies and music which proudly announce the number of tickets or units they sell.
Actually, David, they do in places. Publisher’s Weekly every year has the round-up of number of all the top-selling books. That’s an illuminating article because they also tell you which made lists and which didn’t.
The main problem is that these numbers for each author are from a personal contract with the publishing company, thus protected by the contract. That’s why it is so rare to see a major author post a royalty statement. It’s part of a contractual document and very private business concerning the writer’s income.
Cheers
Dean
Thanks, Dean. Is there a particular time PW publishes that article? Begiining of the year, end?
I’d be very interested in getting a better sense of what the real numbers are beyond the hype of say, “4 million copies sold’. I was actuall surprised it “only” took 78k units sold to make the extended NYT list.
As always amazing information
David
Actually, it’s usually around the first of March some time. The reason she did so well with (as you say) only 78 K is how fast those copies sold. That’s the key if you don’t have huge numbers, it’s speed. She sold a huge chunk of them in one week.
Cheers, Dean