Hi everyone, I'm new here so please be gentle! I have a question about publishing contracts. Brief backstory first though; I wrote and illustrated a children's book called The Panda bear who came to stay... for my own children last Christmas and they loved it. I decided to self publish on Amazon and have received great feedback but now want to get it out to a wider audience. All good so far but I thought publishing contracts always worked by giving the author an advance, and then royalties on units sold.
However, I've been offered a contributory publishing contract for £1,900 with 25% royalties on net profit and I was wondering if this is normal nowadays and if it sounds good??
My initial thoughts are; how much is 25% net profit of a book that may retail for say, £5.99? Obviously actual sales numbers would be very difficult to predict, but on average, how many copies do children's books sell by first time authors??
I'd love to get my book into bookshops, and ultimately children's bookshelves, but just need to know if I'm likely to recoup my £1,900 outlay.
Any help would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks,
David Howlett
Aside from the reasons already given - meaning that your book probably never will break even - I'd very much NOT trust the honesty of shark companies like this re: how big the profits (if any) actually are. Or did Mr. Smythe (and his secretary) take a "working holiday" in Barbados "polishing" your book? Partly paid for by your sales, of course. Barbados is really stimulating to creation. Nudge nudge wink wink say no MORE!
We're not supposed to advertise other, rival publishers on this site (though calling Jimmy's/ours a rival to Bloomsbury is like calling the lower school's 2nd eleven a rival to Liverpool FC) and it's not in the W&As Yearbook (we did try), so it's just as well that you're already on Amazon.
Good luck!
Adding my voice, repeating what others have said. The following is copied from my reply to another question:
Emilie Van Damm 38 seconds ago
If you can't go a day without editing, I think that that's a good sign.
It shows that your book is important to you. Even couples who love each other deeply sometimes feel like they hate each other.
But Jimmy gives good advice. You're dealing with proofreaders now. Someday you might be enticed by "vanity publishers". These tell you that they really, really want to publish your book... but that you have to "contribute" towards the costs. Sometimes as much as £3,000! And their "costs" are less than £200. Because they don't print a single copy until someone orders one at their website. (This is called "print on demand".) And that £200 is for salaries of people who try to fool other hopeful writers like you to pay them £3,000 for another book...
And they do NOTHING to try to sell your book (aside from showing it on their website... which doesn't cost them very much, and writers would get suspicious if there was ABSOLUTELY nothing there!) Why should they pay for publicity when they already have your £3,000 safely in the bank??? It's up to YOU to advertise your book... after you've paid them.
There's a whole industry dedicated to conning hopeful writers out of their cash... offering next to nothing in exchange. On the other hand, I know that Jimmy - who's an editor/publisher - spent over 100 hours on editing a children's picture book which was never going to earn him a single cent (100% of profits to a worthy cause). Because he LOVES children's books (the good ones: and this is going to be a good one!) and because he wants to help worthy causes and is very generous.
Dear David,
Brief answer (my battery's about to go):
No, no, and no!
If a publisher asks you for £1,900 pounds, they've already got £1,900 in the bank. They don't need to do SOD ALL to promote your book: they've already made their profit... Out of YOUR pocket.
I actually hate Amazon. I'm a small publisher and I just backed out of a very interesting project - after putting in hundreds of hours (for free) - because the author and illustrator insisted on distribution through Amazon.
But even Amazon is better than the sharks that CHARGE YOU for producing your book.
(In BOTH cases, you have to handle publicity yourself. They're not going to invest in publicity for a book which they've already been PAID for.)
Longer answer than I expected...
Get in touch if you want a disinterested opinion from a children's book publisher. As I've said, if you're set on selling through Amazon, I'm not interested. And my tiny concern probably isn't going to be able to sell more than you're doing now. But I DO enjoy children's books, and I'd give you an honest opinion. (Warning: I have very decided tastes.)