Oh, that's another question. If they send me a 5k advance (i have no idea what the common advance is), and the book doesnt make that much, do i owe them the difference? How does that work?

Nope, you don't owe it back -- they take that risk. But you won't make any royalties until you "earn out" your advance. And royalties are a percentage based on the cover price -- say, 7% of $12.99 or something.

As as advance, you could be right on the mark there, or low, depending on the house.

Amy answered everything. Yay!

Allyson, she means the publishing editor. I've got Ruth Cavin at St. Martins Minotaur, and then you get a copy editor assigned, but it's on the publisher's wallet, not on you.

Nope, you don't owe it back -- they take that risk. But you won't make any royalties until you "earn out" your advance. And royalties are a percentage based on the cover price -- say, 7% of $12.99 or something.

This is something I've wondered about. I think maybe deb talked about earning out her advance before, and it frightened heck out of me, because yo, don't give me money if I have to give it back.

There are some circs in which you do have to pay back an advance - if you get, say, half on signing of contract and the other half on said manuscript to be turned in, and usable, by such and such a date, you had best turn it in by that date. I know of at least one author - no, not naming names - who got a huge advance on the third or fourth book in her series, and never finished it. She ended up having to pay it all back.

So, if you don't deliver, you're usually on the hook. But once they approve it and bring it out, it's a done deal. And yep, the earning out is the yummy part; I've paid back the advance on "Weaver", any returns that were going to be returns have now been returned, and now anything it earns through sales is gravy.

Plus, hoping the nice man at Amy's old house - who presently has that Haunted Ballad series on his desk, but at last ping hadn't read it yet - looks at the shiny PW starred review and goes for it. Because any paperback deal, at this point, would damned near pay off the advances on all three of the books with outstanding balances.

This is all very complex. I hope I make enough to pay off a credit card, or at the very least, to buy a nice steak dinner and a pretty dress.

if you get, say, half on signing of contract and the other half on said manuscript to be turned in, and usable, by such and such a date, you had best turn it in by that date

Oh yeah. Most contracts, at least the way we structured them, are set up that way -- you get half on signing, the other half on delivering. For multiple book contracts, you sometimes get it split up even more -- payments for delivering a synopsis, then delivering the manuscript, etc. Anything they can do to delay giving you money, essentially.

Allyson, bebe, it really isn't that bad. As Amy says, the standard contract gives the writer her/his advance as a 50-50 deal. Say it was $5,000; you would get an offer from a publisher. They'd draw up the contract, and send it to your agent. She'd read it over and let you know what they were offering, and what they wanted (things like foreign rights or audio book rights). She'd suggest whatever changes she felt was needed to make the deal as sweet as possible from your end. You'd nod along with her, mostly (it's what I usually do, because my agent is a smart cookie and I totally trust her business acumen). She make the changes and send the contract back. They'd issue the contract, you'd get a copy, you'd initial here, there and also page seven where they'd tried sneaking in a lower than agreed upon paperback percentage, and send it back. They'd then send you the first half of the advance, or rather send it to your agent; she'd take her 15% or whatever and the agency would send you a cheque for the rest of the first half.

I'm in exactly that position right now: I returned the signed contract (five frickin' copies!) to St. Martins Minotaur about three weeks ago and I WANT MY MONEY.

Ahem.

I get the second half on their acceptance of the finished manuscript for "Cruel Sister", on or before 15 November.

I plan on being able to deliver the whole thing. I'm woefully blocked at the moment and need to get 4 essays really complete that are in half-finished or outline form.

I feel that pain; I have (counting) 33,000 words minimum to write between now and 15 November, and the infuriating thing is, the deadline is totally bogus. This is Ruth's assistant's first big "grooming to take over" deal, and she was probably told in school that authors are slackers and prone to weep and slit their wrists and never finish anything on time, so you must hit them with tight deadlines, to make them turn in even a draft.

Except that, I write at warp speed. And I have never once turned in a draft; I turn in books.

And the corker is, they won't even look at the damned thing in any depth until January, after which it'll sit until the last minute, when they start making unreasonable demands ("can we have seventy pages of line edit corrections on fucking post-it notes by tomorrow?")