In fact I wish I could go back and revise the past six years. Not for this one book deal. Otherwise, I reasoned, they would never have paid me such enormous sums.
These publishers must be investing in me for the long run. I was one of their own. It had happened twice in a row, these six-figures: Surely I had somehow become one of the chosen few.
Surely there were writers who had gotten the memo about how advances worked, and the ins and outs of publishing. What came after was beside the point. Someone has to be on the bestseller list, win the National Book Award, have the big movie deal.
Did anyone working with me — agency, publishing team — tell me that a sumptuous advance was not something I should depend on or get used to?
Did anyone in the publishing house take me under their wing and explain to me how the company made decisions about future book deals? Did the publisher tap a more seasoned author on their list to mentor me, as many major corporations encourage within their companies?
Did the MFA in writing program that I was part of, in any way, arm me with the knowledge to protect and advocate for myself in the publishing world? I donated large sums of money to organizations I cared about, and delighted in the feeling that I was making a real difference. Did I pay off my student loans? No, though I made a few large payments. Did I set money aside for retirement? Right now, I had to suck the marrow out of life — and invest heavily in trying to build my author brand.
And no one said I should be buying fancy cocktails. That was all my choice, a combination of an almost manic pursuit of joie de vivre Fitzgerald would understand!
I figured they had cracked the code — swag, website — and I just needed to follow suit. Despite making some poor choices, I did try very hard to do right by this unexpected reversal of fortunes.
The school where my husband taught had a financial planner that offered services to teachers, so we met with him and his partner, but it was obvious they only wanted to sell us life insurance. Our tax guy told us what to write off, but we had no idea what we were doing. No writer I knew had someone they trusted for financial advice, and our unconventional earnings made getting clear advice very difficult.
I lived in Brooklyn, a borough of one of the most expensive cities in the world. While I was buoyed by the very small, very occasional foreign book deal, this was it until there were more books in the pipeline. What could I have done differently? I could have opted to move to a city that was less expensive, certainly. I could have chosen not to quit my day job, but it would have been tough. I had five books under contract at once, plus the enormous task of building and maintaining an author brand.
I had no idea and was not told upon entering the program how nearly impossible it is to find work as faculty in any college or university, regardless of how qualified you are. I could have and now wish more than anything that I had paid off my student loans. I could have put myself on a strict budget — one that assumed I was never going to get big payouts as a writer again.
I could have saved a down payment for a house. And I could have put money aside each year for retirement.
As the royalty statements came in, and a foreign book contract was dropped due to low sales, my worry began to grow. One sent me on tour, which is about as luxe as it can get for an author, but very few people showed up at the events, and that was that. Fast-forward to my third book deal, for a contemporary novel.
Bloom Discovery Award , garnered several starred reviews, had multiple books on important lists, and worked hard on author-branding and social media. What other job would lower your salary after getting such great performance reviews?
But no one tells you your numbers, so I really had no idea where I stood. Never mind that the book was critically praised and had made some of those nice lists. It is a business, after all. Which is fair… to a point. In reality, they were paying me less than half the salary of a local public-school teacher. I do more marketing than most marketing professionals, including loads of promotional work such as interviews, guest posts, and podcast appearances. My publishers have never made so much as a bookmark for me though twice they agreed to design them if I paid for the printing.
If I wanted to go to a book festival or important industry conference out of town, I had to pay, unless the festival organizer covered the costs, which they rarely do. I have a book coming out next year that is getting more marketing attention already, but I know better than to get my hopes up. None of the people in the room so to speak warned that the next time around the advance might be lower.
But vol 4 and the mirror both gives zipped files and so this problem arise. If you entered the password but it still prompt and asked again, you most likely have an incompatible unzipping software. Use something like 7zip or winrar instead. Or perhaps you pasted the password with an extra space or something? Just change the link from mega.
I have fixed the links from vol 8 onwards. Thanks for letting me know. There is an explanation on what premiums are. Powered by WordPress Theme: Baskerville 2.
TBD Password: thatnovelcorner. Like this: Like Loading
0コメント