Would You Make a $100,000 Bet?

For today’s post, I’ve decided to shift perspective and share how publishers think.

When an author like yourself gets a book deal, it’s because an editor at a publishing house — like Penguin or HarperCollins — has convinced their boss (a person who holds the actual title of Publisher or Editorial Director) and likely multiple other people (often in publicity, marketing, and sales) that your book is going to sell and make them a profit.

This is a really big hurdle for three reasons, all of which involve something surprising.

Math.

Let’s start with the publisher’s investment (reason #1).

An editor at Penguin Random House told me that they invest over $100,000 in every book they decide to publish. If your book sells for $28, that means you have to sell approximately 3,600 copies right?
Wrong. You are forgetting about the author’s advance, or what you get paid for the book. Let’s assume you get a six-figure advance because that’s what the authors I work with receive. Assuming that you receive $100,000 as your advance, now your book needs to sell over 7,000 copies to make a profit for everyone involved.

You might think, okay cool — I’ll get 7,000 people to follow me on LinkedIn!