How do you get paid for getting your book published?

Question

I've heard that there are 2 ways to get paid:

1. The writer will get (for example) 3 cents per word. Then, even if the book is a huge hit, the writer wouldn't get any more money.

2. The writer will get some sort of percentage, like 10% of book sales. So if the book only sold 10 copies, then you would be at a disadvantage; the more books sold the more money the author gets.

If your book wasn't a good book, you would choose the 1st option, but if it'd be popular, then you'd choose the 2nd method.

Those were all the payment methods I heard from friend. Are they right?

Answer 1

Those are basically two of the most common options, yes. Below are the ones that I know:

• Fee: This is typical for articles, short stories and poems submitted to magazines (when there is payment offered). You get either a one-time flat fee or a per-word fee for first publication rights in that periodical.

• Contract Writing: This is typical for large franchised series, technical writing, ghostwriting and targeted non-fiction. You are paid a one-time fee for all publication rights, and you write what you are told to write.

• Royalties and advance: This is standard for legitimate traditional publishers of fiction and prestige non-fiction. The author is paid an advance (typically small, unless the author is extremely well-known) based on the publisher's estimate of how many copies they will eventually sell. The author is also paid a certain amount per book sold (10% is relatively typical, although that must be split in the case of multiple authors or an author/illustrator combo) --this is known as royalties. However, no royalties are paid until the initial advance has been entirely covered. In some cases the advance must be paid back if the royalties never cover it.

• POD (Print on Demand) - This is a new method of publishing made possible by modern technology. The book is only printed, one copy at a time, in the case that someone wants to purchase it, and the author is paid a percentage of the cover price (usually comparable to a royalty), with the remainder going to the printer. This is most often used by self-publishing authors (but sometimes used by traditional publishers for their backlists). Books printed this way will rarely be carried in traditional bookstores, regardless of merit (because there is no margin left for the middleman). They do not sell themselves, so an author looking to make money through POD must be a relentless self-promoter.

• eBook - Another new high-tech publishing method, the eBook is delivered digitally to a device, and never printed. Most people go through a supplier such as Amazon, although it is possible to do this alone. The author gets a larger percentage of the cover price, but readers are typically willing to pay much less for these. eBooks are often assumed to be lower quality because the investment in getting them published is so much lower than with other methods.

• Self-Publishing - In legitimate self-publishing, the author takes on all the jobs of the publisher, including typesetting, layout, cover design, proofreading, publicity, marketing and sales. The author keeps all profits from sales of book, minus the initial printing costs. This is typically a good route for those who are using the books as a sideline to a business such as motivational speaking, or who are excellent at sales. Self-published books tend to garner little respect because they haven't been through the vetting process of a traditional publisher, and because the production values are often low. (A well-done self-published book, however, will not be easily identified as one.)

• Vanity Press - Vanity presses exploit naive authors by masquerading as legitimate publishers. They are a form of self-publishing, but they make their profit from overcharging the author for the services that a legitimate publisher does for free. A vanity press is one that makes money even if no books are ever sold. It is extremely difficult to make any money through vanity publishing because of the high up-front fees.

• Academic Writing - As @what mentioned, academic publications rarely pay directly for writing, but the publishing pays indirectly in terms of helping academics get and secure teaching positions and other benefits. (Academics can make a great deal of money, however, if they edit or contribute to a popular textbook.)

• Cooperative Publishing - This is basically a form of self-publishing, where a cooperative collective of authors (see this example) publishes an anthology work, and then takes on the task of sales. This is more a way to get into print than to make money, since the per-author proceeds are quite low.

In my experience, even what are considered successful authors rarely make enough just from publishing to survive on. A "very successful" book might generate $10,000 for its author, which sounds like a lot, but not if the book took 5 years to write. Even very well-respected authors can often have more prestige than money. Many authors supplement their income through doing paid speaking engagements. A large number are professors of English (if they have their MFA degree), or teach at writing institutes. Others do contract writing to subsidize the writing they really care about.

Answer 2

What kind of book? I have most experience with novels... I think things are a bit different for non-fiction, but I can't say for sure.

For novels...

Authors don't get paid per word. That applies to some short story markets, and, I think to non-fiction articles, but not novels.

For novels, authors are paid royalties based on sales. This can be either net sales, in which case the percentage is generally higher, or cover price, in which case the percentage is generally lower. So, for example, a publisher might pay 50% of net sales, but that means that for a $5 e-book, the publisher would only receive $3.50, and the author would get $1.75. Or the publisher might pay 15% of cover price, so if the book had a $10 cover price the author would get $1.50 per book sold.

There are also advances that come into play. When a publisher buys a book, they give the author an advance on royalties, which is essentially an advance payment of royalties that will hopefully be received down the line. So the author might get a $10K advance (often divided into 1/3 payments for when the contract is signed, the MS is received, and the book is released), and won't receive any royalties on that title until the advance is paid off.