He also probably gets something from the supplements. On Thu, Jan 23, 2003 at 02:39:11PM -0800, Devine, James wrote: > Doug writes: >Say Mankiw's book retails for $40, and he gets a 15% royalty. > (Dunno > the real numbers, just guessing.)< > > I don't know about the %, but the book's more likely to sell for $100. (My > students go on-line to avoid the retail price...) > > ------------------------ > Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Doug Henwood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 11:18 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: [PEN-L:34076] Re: RE: Re: RE: RE: Re: tax theory/policy > > > > > > Devine, James wrote: > > > > >strictly speaking, I'm told that a publisher's advance is not really > > >an advance (i.e., cash on the barrel). There are all sorts of limits > > >on it. But I have no direct knowledge and it would be interesting to > > >hear how advances really work. > > > > Advances are technically "advances against royalties" - royalties > > being a fixed percentage (usually 10-15%) of a book's cover price > > paid to the author. But you don't get paid royalties until enough > > books are sold to cover the advance. > > > > Say Mankiw's book retails for $40, and he gets a 15% royalty. (Dunno > > the real numbers, just guessing.) That works out to $6 per copy sold. > > To earn back the advance, he'd have to sell 166,667 copies. If it > > sold less than that, he'd get to keep the $1m. If it sold more, he'd > > get $6 per copy (in addition to the $1m). > > > > Generally advances are paid in tranches - e.g. a third on signing the > > contract, a third on delivery of the ms., and the final third on > > publication. Details may vary, of course. > > > > There's a saying in the biz that if you get paid royalties, your > > advance wasn't big enough. > > > > Doug > > > >
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
