Anyone know anything about book contracts?

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

DH is a freelance journalist. He has contributed chapters to books in the past and edited books for which he has always been paid a flat per word rate. Now he has been asked to write a complete book for which he is being offered a small advance and a royalty. The advance would be a very small fraction of his normal per word fee for a project like this. What he would like to know is what does he need to find out before committing to this project?
Average sales for books of this type?
Normal royalty percentage?
Are the publishers likely to give him this info or is there some other way of finding out?
Any advice much appreciated!

Many moons ago I used to work in trade publishing contracts dept, but my memory is not great.

Can I ask what kind of book it is? Is it with a big-name publisher? Would an agent be a possibility? Obviously they will know what they can ask for and the minimum he should get. Naturally, publishers are unlikely to volunteer this information. They will have a 'standard' contract but may try to get away with less good terms if it's a one-off and no agent involved.

From my baby-raddled memory, hardback royalties are 10 per cent of published price, rising to 12 and a half and 15 if it sells over a certian figure - but all these figures can also be based on 'price received' which can obviously be much lower.

Paperbacks usually start at 7 and half per cent, rising to ... gawd, can't remember how it went now.

Something like the Authors ?Guild? might be able to give more reliable info on these figures.

He can ask for a realistic projection of sales (they will have had to do one to work out whether the financials work), and he needs to know whether his royalty will be based on Net Sales (i.e. the amount the publisher gets from bookshops after they've been given a discounted price and returns) or List Price (which is the cover price).
That should give him enough to work out whether the overall payment is likely to be ok.
Can only ask.

Society of Authors could give an idea of 'normal' royalties but TBH it varies so much depending on type of book, potential market, size of publisher etc etc.

Average sales..a company called Nielsen Bookscan collates sales information. I think it's a subscription thing though, but you might be able to call them with a specific request for information? here

BTW - he might be able to negotiate for a flat fee if he's more comfortable with that. Royalties and advances are about spreading risk - the publisher is gambling that that they've picked a winner. A flat fee is more money upfront for the publisher, but if they get a good seller out of your DH, with no royalties to pay it's an extra 10% (or so) in their pocket rather than DH's for the entire life of the book.

The Society of Authors will advise on contracts. That's who I used for my latest contract. You have to be a member and it costs about £100 to join. Their advice was really excellent.

www.societyofauthors.org/

Really he needs an agent - their job is to haggle on your behalf, it's usually worth the per centage they take

Thanks LadyBee and WineBeforePearls for that helpful info. He is going to ask for a sales projection. It isn't a big name publisher but it is a respected one. Royalties are based on list price so that is one good thing. It is a how-to sort of book aimed at the general public (without getting too specific) and we have no idea how titles like that generally sell. Think Mumsnet Guides, but not in the parenting area.

Also, writewords is an author-specific message board, with quite a few published authors on it, and some useful advice. And some hard comparisons as well in terms of fees, rates etc.

Thanks everyone. He is having a look at those websites now. It is a tricky one because it doesn't look likely to make anything like the money that he will make from an equivalent amount of his normal work (newspaper/magazine features) but normal work has slowed down considerably since Christmas. Basically, times are tough in the Palliser household right now, so we have to take what we can get.
And, you never know, the book might sell well.

It can't be a bad thing to have his name in Amazon as a sole author, when touting for more work!? I think 'useful' books generally do sell quite well - assuming the subject is relatively common. They're more reliable than fiction is at least.

Very true, LadyBee. They came back to him today with sales projections on the basis of which we have worked out that word for word he stands to make less than a third of what he would normally. But as work has fallen off a cliff this month, he can't turn it down and it is something for the cv anyway.
I don't know if anyone else is finding it grim out there in freelance world right now? DH has been freelancing very successfully for eight years and I've been on and off freelancing for four and we've never known it to be so tough.

LGP: I think its quite normal for journalists to earn less per word for a whole book commission than they would for an article/column/contribution.

.

Mintyy - we knew it would probably be less, but this is a pitiful amount! Am now wondering how authors of books manage to survive at all.

Is it a book with a potentially very small readership (ie. something academic?).

If not, and if your dh would want to and could write other books in future, then I do suggest he tries to find an agent. Society of Authors might be able to help here to.

As he already makes a living as a writer, and has this commission, he might not find it too hard to be taken on by a good agency.

At least then you would be sure his contract was watertight and he really was getting the best possible financial deal.

Both DH and I freelance - although in very different fields - and for us there is definitely a rough rule of thumb which says that the longer/bigger the contract, the less you get pro rata. Certainly my daily rate, for just doing 2 or 3 days work, is considerably more than my average daily rate over a 4 or 5 month contract.

I am a freelance hack too and have one book published and another on the way.

I've had my fingers burnt somewhat with book one (very long story) but my advice, for what it's worth is:

1. don't be flattered by the idea of getting a book contract and ignore the business side of things (you sound like you aren't doing that anyway)
2. get some comfort that the publisher concerned does a decent amount of marketing and promotion and has the clout to get their books into retailers. This has been my big problem. There are certain incredibly obvious things they should, imho as someone who has a commercial mindset, be doing to promote my book as it targets a fairly easy to access market, but they refuse to do these things as they don't for other titles. So, for example there are certain consumer exhibitions and websites they should be targeting but they don't do it.
3. don't expect to make much money unless it's a title with quite mainstream appeal. Many, many authors do not earn back their royalty for years, if ever.
4. think about whether the book has international appeal and longevity or will it become outdated after a couple of years. Both will impact your ability to make money out of the book.

Financially, I took a hit when I wrote my first book but, as others have suggested, it did give me a new niche for my journalism work. I've probably earned a good deal more (still not loads) from work I've sold off the back of the book than I have from the actual royalties.

Sorry to hear both you and your dh are struggling to sell work in. You are not alone - have you looked at Journobiz.com? It's a fantastic source of support and ideas for freelance journalists.

LadyG

Sorry you and your dh are finding it so tough - my dh and I freelance also in simlarish fields to you and it's the worst it's ever been out there . Freelance fiends of mine are retraining as bus drivers, because there's no work. What's brutal is how sudden the change has been from a steady stream to almost nothing virtually overnight.

All I can say is books don't - with rare exceptions - make decent money. Your dh should probably do the contract but churn it out asap, no time to be precious or perfectionist. If people pay peanuts they will get monkeys. Your job is to survive. Good luck.

Thanks guys. I have had it with freelance myself to be honest. I always had staff jobs and loved them, but went freelance when we moved out of London to a fairly remote part of the West Country. Now I'm finishing off an OU degree and hoping to get a PGCE place next year so with luck I can quit this game for good and do something different with my life.
Jujumaman - you are quite right about the way work has gone. DH is really well-established in his field and writes for a huge range of publications so we thought we'd be fairly well-insulated, but it has gone straight down the plughole this month.
He's decided to do the book anyway. The joke is last year he rewrote edited a similar book for the same publisher which had been written by a specialist who couldn't write very well and he got paid shedloads more for that!

Theauthor - thanks very much for that useful advice. I will have a look at journobiz, its one we hadn't come across before.

It's absolutely excellent (and I'm not biased as I have no links to the people who run it)....a very good forum for swapping notes/ tips/ getting stuff off your chest etc. with other freelance journalists. Nearly everyone on there is feeling the pinch with the recession - lots of talk of rate cuts etc.

I am a freelance writer and have had 40+ books published. Fiction, but it might be comparable. Advances are not huge- say 2-3k for 10,000 fiction story UK rights only with a royalty of 5%. That is the least I would accept. World rights for longer books considerably more.

He needs to check what he is signing away in terms of rights eg if it is sold on the America does he get a percentage of sale (If so should be min. 50% max 80%).

My first advance, a long time ago, as an unpublished unsolited writer was £1,000 for about 50,000 words.

I don't know if the publishers are likely to give him the info he wants to know, and I would take publishers statistics with a very large amount of salt if I were you.

Soc of Authors brilliant but I think you have to have 2 books published to be a member.

It is VERY tough at the moment. I think he may have done very well to get an offer at all.

That sounds about right for a non-fiction advance ime too, although royalties tend to be higher (unless the 5% is of the cover price with fiction?)

I'm not sure you do have to have had two books published to join the SoA - maybe they've relaxed their criteria?