Almost finished, or Part 5

I have, in previous posts, made one assumption in general which I should now address a bit.

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[Oh -- I forgot to mention something else, which I should. The vast majority of all returns will be front-list books. The new books that have come out. Backlist books should have a much smaller rate of return because in theory the bookstore knows how those sell, and can order accordingly.]

Don't shoot me for LJ flooding... a digression

One other interesting thing I've been hearing lately about the kids' book field, that somehow had never been on my radar before: apparently many people feel that if your advance doesn't earn out, even if the book otherwise does well, it could harm your chances of selling the next. While in SF/fantasy, the conventional wisdom was always (don't know if this has changed) that you shouldn't expect your book to earn out, especially if it's a first novel.

Although this was in a comment thread, I wanted to separate it out; it's a question asked by janni.

I don't actually know how true this is now, but I do know that I, like Janni, heard this a lot in the early '90s. There was some sense that if the advance, which is entirely separate from something like a P&L statement, earned out then you, the author, had been paid too little.

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LJ flooding part 2

janni's question about earning out your advance: I know a lot of people who have, in fact, earned out their first book advances.

So. If your advance does earn out, are you in fact underpaid?

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