This is an interesting data point. I think, on Making Light, Jane Yolen also said that advances for YA/kids books was in general lower across the board than it was for other genres, and given how many books she's sold, I'd trust her opinion without a second thought.
It does go back to the heart of the question you asked a ways back, vis a vis earning out one's advance; if the advance paid is low enough, and the advance wasn't earned out, that would be almost entirely because of the number of books sold. I can guess that picture books are far more costly to produce than standard middle-reader or YA novels. I know that in some cases, the artists were paid on a different scale (flat fee plus royalties, as opposed to advance against).
If an editor did send me a letter saying they'd be happy to take another look at a rewrite, and made it clear that this was not a guarantee or an obligation to either party, this would be fine -- I haven't heard of similar, but then again, people often don't pull out their earlier correspondence to let me read them <wry g>.
And any personal reply, any book over which an editor chooses to take the time and make the detailed response -- even in a rejection -- is still a really good sign. Not as good as, say, buying -- but still good, imho.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-10 08:41 pm (UTC)It does go back to the heart of the question you asked a ways back, vis a vis earning out one's advance; if the advance paid is low enough, and the advance wasn't earned out, that would be almost entirely because of the number of books sold. I can guess that picture books are far more costly to produce than standard middle-reader or YA novels. I know that in some cases, the artists were paid on a different scale (flat fee plus royalties, as opposed to advance against).
If an editor did send me a letter saying they'd be happy to take another look at a rewrite, and made it clear that this was not a guarantee or an obligation to either party, this would be fine -- I haven't heard of similar, but then again, people often don't pull out their earlier correspondence to let me read them <wry g>.
And any personal reply, any book over which an editor chooses to take the time and make the detailed response -- even in a rejection -- is still a really good sign. Not as good as, say, buying -- but still good, imho.