How much money does a novelist make?

It's interesting:
"Wedding days are meant to be unforgettable occasions, and this one certainly will be. The weather held out, the ceremony went without a hitch, and now a ..."

Novelists get paid by commercial trade publishers when their manuscript is accepted and a contract is signed for publication. Unlike nonfiction, which is contracted upon the basis of a book proposal, outline and sample chapter, a first fictional book or novel, must be completely written before the contract is offered. The range of how much money a novelist makes is huge and ranges from perhaps a $100 advance to millions. Nicholas Sparks was offered $1 million advance for his first novel, "The Notebook."

1. Number of Books

   • Some authors, such as Sandra Brown, write one book a year. Others, like Nora Roberts, write two to four. And finally, still others such as James Patterson, write a number of books with different co-authors. The number of books written in a year is one factor in how much money a novelist makes.

   Advance

   • The novelist is paid a percentage on the sales of the book. The advance is simply a prepayment of projected royalties. If the book earns more royalties than the advance the publisher makes additional payments to the author. That percentage is from 6 percent to 10 percent and can be based on the retail price of the book -- the price the bookstore sells the book to its customers -- or on the wholesale price of the book - -the price the publisher sells the book to the distributor for. The distributor then sells the book to the bookstores.

   Earn Out

   • If the advance is $12,000 and the book eventually sells at least enough copies to pay that $12,000, then the book is said to have earned out its advance. Most novels and nonfiction books do not earn out their advance. That doesn't mean that the publisher and author didn't make money. If the book sells less than the advance, the author does not have to pay the advance back, unless the contract specifically says so.

   Returns

   • Bookstores can and do return books to the publisher through the distributor. The amount of the returns is subtracted from the previous sales and shows up on the novelist's next royalty statement. Returns can be as high as 20 percent.

   Self-Published

   • With a self-published book, the author not only writes the book but acts as the publisher as well. How much money the author makes is determined by the profit on each book multiplied by how many books are sold. The profit is the sales minus expenses. Expenses include printing and shipping and promotional costs such as advertising, bookmarks and publicity.

Source: www.ehow.com

Tags: much money, sells book, does novelist, does novelist make, money does, money does novelist