Fascinating and really helpful to all authors, as so much of what is happening within the publisher seems like a secret world to many authors. One thing I hear from other authors and agree with needs addressing is that the way authors are paid can be terribly unfair on them and their livelihoods - particularly joint accounting. When I got my first deals around 2012 onwards, they were separate accounting and that was almost the norm then. Now joint accounting is the norm and it keeps back vital money from authors that is needed to survive and write the next book. Would love to hear your thoughts on why publishers generally don’t offer separate accounting anymore and how that can be justified when authors’ earnings are so low. This is one reason why authors may well be better served by one-book deals: at least we get the money we’ve worked for and earned sooner rather than much, much later.
Hello! Someone else asked this too and essentially most big publishers always do JA now - it allows us to spread the risk out and sometimes allows us to offer more as we're able to spread the money over multiple quarters / budget seasons rather than it all going in one big hit (as some advances are very high; I appreciate not all!) So I think it just comes down to a business decision. I appreciate some author earnings are low and that is a wider issue, of course. These days there are more options available, though - e.g. no advance but higher royalties, digital-first, self-publishing (though I still think that is very hard unless you really know your stuff) - so depends what you want. If a one book deal is what you prefer, you can definitely relay that to your agent and they can offer that to the publisher. We do do one book deals and actually they are becoming more common, too. Hope that helps and thank you for reading! x
And that’s what makes your posts so useful and interesting! It is becoming impossible to make a living from their work for many writers though and publishers withholding money that’s already been worked for and earned by the author is one of the main reasons why. I can see it makes sense for the publisher for economic reasons but it may well get to the point where the only people who can afford to write novels are already independently wealthy, partly due to practices like these, including holding back a chunky percentage of royalties against returns, which again the solitary writer gets hit with, not the massive publisher. It depends what kind of marketplace publishers want, because talented writers who work hard and produce quality work book after book will not be able to survive unless they have a rich spouse or a whole other career and so on, because so much of their rightfully owned earnings are withheld from them for months and in many cases years. There can be few industries where it’s acceptable to withhold earnings that way. Just because it’s normal, doesn’t mean it’s right, of course. But authors cannot insist on any of this as there’s so little wriggle room within negotiations over contracts even with a brilliant agent. I just wish publishers truly understood how impossible it’s becoming to be a working writer. Sorry if this feels like a rant and of course it’s not directed at you! Just a general rant about the state of play which has got worse and worse in the 13 years I’ve been in the business.
A fascinating post, as usual! I would love to hear your thoughts (maybe in a whole post, or maybe as an add-on) on 'spice levels' in books. I'm writing adult romance with zero spice and I'm concerned that'll be offputting for an agent and publishers, though I believe there's a growing market for that. I'd be so interested to hear how spice levels play into the appeal of books, particularly romance, but also in romantasy and other general and genre fiction. Also do you think it's true that readers expect more spice these days? And is that because of TikTok? It would be a really interesting discussion, I think!
Thanks Katie! Yes we're seeing tons of very spicy romance performing well, with some very big hitters in this space. It is driven a lot by Tiktok, and we see a lot of sales in this space through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited, and there is crossover into the romantasy space. Within the romance space you have levels of spice, and some are darker/sexier than others, so there are now sub-genres within the overall genre. There is still a market for more wholesome romance, but I'd say the spicy romance is bringing in the most readers at the moment (as an overall comment). Lots of books have 'spice ratings' on the covers or listings, and I do think lots of readers love it (though of course not all). There are still books in the cosier 'women's fiction' space and the saga / book club space that have romantic elements but aren't spicy, but lots of younger, female readers seem to be loving the spicy books and they seem to get quite obsessive about the characters and the authors, too. It's something that has grown hugely in the last 18 months or so, and very interesting to see - but it doesn't mean that it's the whole market so hopefully, there is room for what you are writing, too! x
As a total newbie, is seems like you work with the editor only after having an agent to advocate for you. I know this isn't your world, but would love to know more about that step & how to go about it - if you have recoommendations or "the honest agent" counterpart somewhere, lol!
Thank you for reading! I did a post here about getting an agent: https://honesteditor.substack.com/p/how-to-get-a-literary-agent so hopefully that is useful to you! There are some imprints that accept unsolicited submissions (where you don't need an agent) but yes, where I work I only get submissions through agents. And as Christy below says, there are some great agents to follow on here, The Not So Secret Agents is a good new one from the team at the Blair Partnership. x
Try Jenna Satterwaithe, The Not so Secret Agent, the shit no one tells you about writing, agent antics with Cathie and Vicky, Agents and Books, Kesia Lupo. There’s more.
Thanks for these answers! I'm curious about second reads. I read your post on the acquisitions process, but as an author that's been on sub a bunch of times, I'm often confused by what editors mean when they say they're taking something to second reads vs acquisitions.
Is second reads always part of the overall process between when an editor decides to buy a book, and when they get permission from the team to make an offer? Or at some houses, is it a discrete step you need to pass that's separate from the acquisitions meeting??
So second reads can mean just sharing with immediate editorial colleagues rather than the wider acquisitions team. Sometimes it means sharing with key stakeholders e.g. heads of marketing, PR, sales etc, before actually taking to a bigger official meeting. So it's to get more informal views on the author and the book before deciding to actually take it forward. Hope that makes sense! x
Another super-interesting read, thanks! Regarding point one, what about 'Option on Next Novel' clauses in one-book contracts? I heard that any other publisher wouldn't necessarily even consider a novel that hadn't had that option taken up by the first publisher. Would you think less of a submission that came in like that from an author?
No, absolutely not! That’s not a problem; we might wonder why the existing publisher hadn’t recontracted and want to know more about the situation, that’s all, but not a huge deal x
Really interesting to read, especially point 1, as this is a a conversation lots of authors are having at the moment. Two-book deals do offer security to authors... but not necessarily financial security because publishers insist on joint accounting. So you can earn out on the first but if the second doesn't do as well the author is left in a royalties deficit. Why do publishers insist on JA?
JA is usually a deal breaker for lots of publishers; essentially it’s to do with mitigating the risk, and it can help us to be able to offer a higher advance because it’s spread out (as you say) so it doesn’t all go into one budget quarter. But yes I hear you, pros and cons!! Thank you for reading! X
An interesting behind-the-scenes look; thank you!
Thank you for reading!
Fascinating and really helpful to all authors, as so much of what is happening within the publisher seems like a secret world to many authors. One thing I hear from other authors and agree with needs addressing is that the way authors are paid can be terribly unfair on them and their livelihoods - particularly joint accounting. When I got my first deals around 2012 onwards, they were separate accounting and that was almost the norm then. Now joint accounting is the norm and it keeps back vital money from authors that is needed to survive and write the next book. Would love to hear your thoughts on why publishers generally don’t offer separate accounting anymore and how that can be justified when authors’ earnings are so low. This is one reason why authors may well be better served by one-book deals: at least we get the money we’ve worked for and earned sooner rather than much, much later.
Hello! Someone else asked this too and essentially most big publishers always do JA now - it allows us to spread the risk out and sometimes allows us to offer more as we're able to spread the money over multiple quarters / budget seasons rather than it all going in one big hit (as some advances are very high; I appreciate not all!) So I think it just comes down to a business decision. I appreciate some author earnings are low and that is a wider issue, of course. These days there are more options available, though - e.g. no advance but higher royalties, digital-first, self-publishing (though I still think that is very hard unless you really know your stuff) - so depends what you want. If a one book deal is what you prefer, you can definitely relay that to your agent and they can offer that to the publisher. We do do one book deals and actually they are becoming more common, too. Hope that helps and thank you for reading! x
Thanks so much for explaining that. :)
Not trying to negate the frustration, I do understand the author side too!
And that’s what makes your posts so useful and interesting! It is becoming impossible to make a living from their work for many writers though and publishers withholding money that’s already been worked for and earned by the author is one of the main reasons why. I can see it makes sense for the publisher for economic reasons but it may well get to the point where the only people who can afford to write novels are already independently wealthy, partly due to practices like these, including holding back a chunky percentage of royalties against returns, which again the solitary writer gets hit with, not the massive publisher. It depends what kind of marketplace publishers want, because talented writers who work hard and produce quality work book after book will not be able to survive unless they have a rich spouse or a whole other career and so on, because so much of their rightfully owned earnings are withheld from them for months and in many cases years. There can be few industries where it’s acceptable to withhold earnings that way. Just because it’s normal, doesn’t mean it’s right, of course. But authors cannot insist on any of this as there’s so little wriggle room within negotiations over contracts even with a brilliant agent. I just wish publishers truly understood how impossible it’s becoming to be a working writer. Sorry if this feels like a rant and of course it’s not directed at you! Just a general rant about the state of play which has got worse and worse in the 13 years I’ve been in the business.
A fascinating post, as usual! I would love to hear your thoughts (maybe in a whole post, or maybe as an add-on) on 'spice levels' in books. I'm writing adult romance with zero spice and I'm concerned that'll be offputting for an agent and publishers, though I believe there's a growing market for that. I'd be so interested to hear how spice levels play into the appeal of books, particularly romance, but also in romantasy and other general and genre fiction. Also do you think it's true that readers expect more spice these days? And is that because of TikTok? It would be a really interesting discussion, I think!
Thanks Katie! Yes we're seeing tons of very spicy romance performing well, with some very big hitters in this space. It is driven a lot by Tiktok, and we see a lot of sales in this space through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited, and there is crossover into the romantasy space. Within the romance space you have levels of spice, and some are darker/sexier than others, so there are now sub-genres within the overall genre. There is still a market for more wholesome romance, but I'd say the spicy romance is bringing in the most readers at the moment (as an overall comment). Lots of books have 'spice ratings' on the covers or listings, and I do think lots of readers love it (though of course not all). There are still books in the cosier 'women's fiction' space and the saga / book club space that have romantic elements but aren't spicy, but lots of younger, female readers seem to be loving the spicy books and they seem to get quite obsessive about the characters and the authors, too. It's something that has grown hugely in the last 18 months or so, and very interesting to see - but it doesn't mean that it's the whole market so hopefully, there is room for what you are writing, too! x
Thanks for giving such a thorough answer!
Your series is so insightful & helpful!
As a total newbie, is seems like you work with the editor only after having an agent to advocate for you. I know this isn't your world, but would love to know more about that step & how to go about it - if you have recoommendations or "the honest agent" counterpart somewhere, lol!
Thanks for the time you put into these posts!
Thank you for reading! I did a post here about getting an agent: https://honesteditor.substack.com/p/how-to-get-a-literary-agent so hopefully that is useful to you! There are some imprints that accept unsolicited submissions (where you don't need an agent) but yes, where I work I only get submissions through agents. And as Christy below says, there are some great agents to follow on here, The Not So Secret Agents is a good new one from the team at the Blair Partnership. x
Thank you!!
Try Jenna Satterwaithe, The Not so Secret Agent, the shit no one tells you about writing, agent antics with Cathie and Vicky, Agents and Books, Kesia Lupo. There’s more.
Thank you!!
Thanks for these answers! I'm curious about second reads. I read your post on the acquisitions process, but as an author that's been on sub a bunch of times, I'm often confused by what editors mean when they say they're taking something to second reads vs acquisitions.
Is second reads always part of the overall process between when an editor decides to buy a book, and when they get permission from the team to make an offer? Or at some houses, is it a discrete step you need to pass that's separate from the acquisitions meeting??
So second reads can mean just sharing with immediate editorial colleagues rather than the wider acquisitions team. Sometimes it means sharing with key stakeholders e.g. heads of marketing, PR, sales etc, before actually taking to a bigger official meeting. So it's to get more informal views on the author and the book before deciding to actually take it forward. Hope that makes sense! x
Another super-interesting read, thanks! Regarding point one, what about 'Option on Next Novel' clauses in one-book contracts? I heard that any other publisher wouldn't necessarily even consider a novel that hadn't had that option taken up by the first publisher. Would you think less of a submission that came in like that from an author?
No, absolutely not! That’s not a problem; we might wonder why the existing publisher hadn’t recontracted and want to know more about the situation, that’s all, but not a huge deal x
Thank you - so supportive and helpful! X
Thanks for reading x
Really interesting to read, especially point 1, as this is a a conversation lots of authors are having at the moment. Two-book deals do offer security to authors... but not necessarily financial security because publishers insist on joint accounting. So you can earn out on the first but if the second doesn't do as well the author is left in a royalties deficit. Why do publishers insist on JA?
JA is usually a deal breaker for lots of publishers; essentially it’s to do with mitigating the risk, and it can help us to be able to offer a higher advance because it’s spread out (as you say) so it doesn’t all go into one budget quarter. But yes I hear you, pros and cons!! Thank you for reading! X
Thanks for the explanation. It’s so great that someone high up in publishing is prepared to pull back the curtain on the mystery of it all! x
Thanks for reading x