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When I was still involved with writing, published technical authors were able to negotiate better royalty rates for subsequent deals, particularly if they had r
by percept 17y ago
When I was still involved with writing, published technical authors were able to negotiate better royalty rates for subsequent deals, particularly if they had representation (but not exclusively--as always it depends on your negotiating skills).
- tptacek 17y agoThat's interesting; how much more do you think Cooper could have gotten?
- percept 17y agoIt's been a while but for some reason the numbers 10, 12, and 15 came to mind. Checking Peter's post I see 10% so I guess some things never change, including the advances (come on publishers, inflation here?). IIRC authors with a track record could start off in the 12-15% range, and could sometimes get higher advances, possibly $10-20k. This is my dated info from personal experience and reading the experiences of others on the HN-equivalent technical book writing mailing list (can't remember the name and it may be gone now; the listserv was run by an agency). I don't want to seem overly pessimistic. Someone may want to write a book for the experience and someone else may figure out how to work it to their best advantage as part of a larger portfolio of offerings. As always it's up to the individual.