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I cannot speak highly enough about @neevkm's wonderful newsletter about money and publishing. If you work in publishing, or want to work in publishing, or an author, or are even slightly close, go read it.
Inspired by it, here's a thread about money and agenting. 1/?
Inspired by it, here's a thread about money and agenting. 1/?
Agenting is hard. Really hard. Soul crushing sometimes. And the money situation is... odd. Bits of dander pop into my bank accounts in strange amounts and at strange times. 2/?
I work purely on commission. I take no salary. For every deal I do, my company takes a fixed amount (1/3) and I take home 2/3s. For their part, ACM provide me with a name to trade off, colleagues, a back office (props to @tomlloydwrites), systems and an email address. 3/?
I only eat when my authors eat. When I sell a book, it can take anywhere from a month to three months (or upwards of 6 in some cases where the publisher is being an arse) to see the first quarter of their money. And then I see 10% net of that. Why quarter you ask? 4/?
A traditional publishing contract is mostly split into 4 chunks - advance on signature of the contract (as above, agreement to contract = 1mo, contract to payment = 1mo on average), adv on delivery (in non-fiction, often a minimum of 12mos), adv on HB publication (another ~6-9mo)
And an adv on PB publication (around 9-12mo). So for a non-fiction book, the payments are split over around 3-4 years. 6/?
And remember what I get in commission off that - 10% net. So let's say I've done a magnificent deal for a client of £100,000. Hurray! This is a big book (anecdotally, I'd say top 5%ish? Maybe less?). I'm going to be RICH, surely, with my 10 grand off the top?
Nah mate. For a piece of non-fiction, that's 2.5k *A YEAR* for a book I've done, I'd assume, a bloody good job on. A month and a bit's salary, in old money.
It stacks up over time, yes - those signature advances are combined with the delivery advances of last year, the publication advances of two years ago. But starting out is *tough*. 8/?
2019, from essentially a standing start, I made £350k for clients. Theoretically, I made £35k, then, which is a good salary, right? WRONG. 9/?
I saw about £8k of that in my bank account - most of which was from one book, a 6-figure adv where the signature advance was pleasant. I lived off a £15k loan, and had to ask my girlfriend for rent one month which was galling. 10/?
This year has been more pleasant - I've had a couple of 'crash' books where the whole amount (sig/del/pub) has come in in the space of 6-9 months, and am making an actual salary (for ref, thats a little over 7 figures in advances for clients, of which I've seen maybe 30k in)
And what do I do for that salary? Do I deserve my 10%net? I'd argue yes (of course I would). My authors are AMAZING - without them I'm nothing - but I help shape that talent, hopefully. I spot ideas that they might not have had, shape their proposals, levy my contacts, negotiate
on their behalf, sort their contracts, manage their admin, console them if it hasn't worked out, cheer them if it has, sort their tax forms, hopefully offer care, attention, expertise and enthusiasm. My aim is to be a constant in this career of theirs 12/?
Agents (all agents) are vital to an author. We offer stability in a changeable publishing landscape, knowledge an author shouldn't be expected to have. If they're a plumber by trade, I wouldn't know how to fix a toilet. Why should they know how a book goes through the machine?
I work strange hours, often reading and working in the dead of night. I'll check my emails on holiday. I'll bring work to bed with me. I'll offer as much support to the author I sell for 10k (net 1k to me, over 4 yrs) as the author for 100k (net 10k to me over 4yrs)
And as much again to the author I fail to sell (net 0k).
Publishing is odd. I make a living out of it, but its less than most of my peers (a mate of mine, a year younger, is on a gleeful £60k + commission, another just bumped up to £100k)
Publishing is odd. I make a living out of it, but its less than most of my peers (a mate of mine, a year younger, is on a gleeful £60k + commission, another just bumped up to £100k)
We don't go into this to make a fortune. Some end up doing so. The rest of us struggle along, offering our expertise for no fixed amount, coming at strange unforeseen times, and feeling every blow that our authors do too.
But fuck it if isn't fun when it works.
Some numbers, to end:
2019 advances: £350k
2019 median advance: £11k
2019 income to me: £7.7k
2020 advances: £1.1m
2020 median advance: £12k
2020 income to me: £37.8k (inc. 2019 runoff)
ama
[ENDS]
Some numbers, to end:
2019 advances: £350k
2019 median advance: £11k
2019 income to me: £7.7k
2020 advances: £1.1m
2020 median advance: £12k
2020 income to me: £37.8k (inc. 2019 runoff)
ama
[ENDS]
