Interesting blog post today on John Green’s Sparks Fly Up website. John talks about book advances, and while most writers dream of that 7-figure advance, he states that maybe a lower advance will be more beneficial to the writer AND the publisher.
In his post he makes an analogy based on our current mortgage situation:
“It seems to me that the publishing business has a lot in common with the mortgage industry: A publisher loans you some money, which they expect you to pay back. And if you don’t pay it back, you get a black mark on your reputation and the publisher has to eat a lot of the loss. And we’ve seen in the mortgage industry that both lenders and borrowers do a lot better when homeowners have an equity stake, and when they’ve been loaned an amount they can reasonably expect to repay. And I’m increasingly convinced that publishing would be healthier if we moved in that direction.”
You should go over and read the full blog post, Really Long & Boring Post about Book Advances and Publishing (believe me, it’s not boring at all), and also be sure to read the comments as well.
