Advances vs. Bigger Royalties

There’s a really interesting discussion (via BookNinja) going on over at John Green’s blog about advances vs. bigger royalties, and why the latter might be better as a whole for both authors and publishers. He also has a follow-on based on some feedback received.

I find it really interesting when compared to the video game (AKA my day job) industry’s publisher/developer model (which is somewhat similar to the publisher/author model). The developers that don’t survive are the ones that sign contracts with publishers that don’t actually cover the development costs of a game, counting on a major hit’s sales to earn out their advances and bring in royalties - a rarity in the industry. It’s actually a very low margin industry since most of the costs are labour.

A smart developer will structure a contract such that the advance pays for the costs of development plus a minimum built-in margin (which covers R&D, a little profit, etc.), under the assumption that there will never be any royalties earned.

I’m wondering if the problem with author advances is that they are typically more random. Perhaps if advances were actually calculated based on an author’s development costs (ie, some number calculated from time spent writing multiplied by some reasonable hourly rate), if a smarter royalty structure could then be created. This would normalize advances based on actual cost of labour, rather than the current structure which is based on some imaginary expected return pulled from thin air, or a good agent’s negotiating tactics. With more normalized advances that take into account the true cost of creating a book, perhaps there’d be room for higher royalties in contracts.

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Happy Canada Day!

In honour of our fine land’s birthday, I give you The Canadian Car Chase:






(yes, it’s an ad, sorry, but it’s still funny :-)

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What Happens After “Et Le But!”

In honour of Game 7, my favourite Nike goalie ad:



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May 2009

Underground, by June Hutton

A moving, visceral exploration of one man’s journey of recovery after suffering shell-shock during the Great War.

The Last Wish, by Andrzej Sapkowski

Sends up plenty of fairy tale tropes with wit and flair, but ultimately left both its timelines less resolved than I prefer.

A Walk Through A Window, by kc dyer

Darby Christopher, unhappy about being shunted off to her grandparents’ in PEI for the summer, gets an unexpected lesson about being open to new places and other people’s troubles, all while learning a bit about her ancestors’ journey to Canada.

Zoë’s Tale, by John Scalzi (Hugo voter packet)

A retelling of the events of The Last Colony from teenage Zoë Boutin-Perry’s point of view. If this book doesn’t bring a few more girls into the SF fold, I don’t know what will. Made me laugh. Made me cry. Can’t ask for much more.

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A Study In Contrasts

In the middle of the worst global economic crisis in decades, two of my Kiva lendees have completely paid back their loans, ahead of schedule. Two others are 75% repaid, two more are nearing 50% repaid, and thus I have re-lent the paid back funds to two more entrepeneurs in one of the poorest nations of the world, Mali. So far, my Kiva loans have a 0% default rate.

In the meantime, my government is lending close to 10 billion dollars to a bankrupt company, throwing good money after the already lost other billions it has tossed its way and won’t get back, and doesn’t expect any of the new money to be paid back either. And I’m not allowed to stop paying them income tax for this moronic stupidity. Why are we rewarding this corporation and the unions for their execrable management? You can bet who is not going to be rewarded with my vote come election time.

If you divide $9.5 billion dollars by the 33 million or so people in Canada, that means my personal tax burden for this portion of the GM handouts is about $290. For a brand of consumer product that I HAVE NEVER OWNED. I think I’ll throw that amount at Kiva this month. At least I know it’s being put to good use, by people who appreciate it, and not going towards building cars that I will not be buying.

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Someone Get The Defibrillator

I don’t normally do double doses of the cat, but it’s the weekend, it’s been sunny, and I can’t get my brain in gear to write something interesting.

I didn’t think it was possible for Diesel to top yesterday’s pic for sheer orgasmic relaxation, but this one might just do it. I think if he was any more relaxed, we’d have to restart his heart. As it was, when he came out of his pleasure stupour, his brain took a couple of minutes to reboot itself.

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It’s A Cat’s Life

I don’t think Diesel’s relaxed enough.

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Horror Novel Competition

Caught this on SFScope and thought it might be of interest to horror writers (of which I am not really one).

ChiZine, Leisure Books and Rue Morgue are putting on a contest for horror novels. It’s nice to see a new genre competition. I don’t know how many times I’ve been passed information about some competition or other, only to find out “no SFF/horror”, “must be contemporary” etc.

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Submission Systems

I recently submitted short stories to Fantasy Magazine and Clarkesworld Magazine.

I have to say, their submission system is impressive (it looks like they both use the same technology).

I wish more agents used this kind of thing for partials, etc. You put in your name, e-mail address, title of work, and cover letter, then upload a DOC or RTF for the submission itself. The system gives you a ticket number, and mails you a link to double check on the status of your submission (Open, Pending, etc.). It even tells you how many people are ahead of you in the queue.

Kudos to Fantasy Mag and Clarkesworld for making things simple for writers. Nicely done. Even though I’m one for two on rejections so far :-)

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Voter Turnout

So. Once again, we get abysmal voter turnout (barely 1 million voters. Elections BC apparently was hoping for closer to 2 million voters. I don’t know exact percentages but this is less than 50% voter turnout).

And the electoral reform measure that has been shown to increase voter turnout (STV) failed to pass.

I’m bummed. Because my voting reasoning for the past few elections has gone something like this:

Hmm. Candidate I.M. Interesting has a platform that looks like it makes sense, and has fresh ideas. I would like to see how they do if given the opportunity. But if I vote for Ms. Interesting, I will wind up in a vote-splitting situation with semi-popular Candidate Middle Of The Road. Thus risking the election of Candidate Right-wing Fanatic, or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Candidate Well-Meaning But No Clue On Fiscal Responsibility (What, Give YOU My Tax Dollars? No Way).

With STV, I could have voted for who I really wanted AND Candidate MOR without risking accidentally electing the others. Ie, not choose between the lesser of two evils, but the candidate I feel represents me the best. Wouldn’t that make me feel so much more engaged in the process?

Oh well. And we wonder why voter turnout is getting lower.

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