Royalties of a Mid-List NYT Best Seller PART 2
We're heading back to the onboard bank and getting a look at a year's worth of finances 💵
Ahoy, Ventorship Passengers! I thought in order to offer some distractions after this wild week, I’d give a Part 2 to our royalties series where I’ll share what I learned from my Fall 2024 royalty statements. Then at the end I’ll add it to the info from my Spring 2024 statements, so you can see what a year’s worth of royalty earnings can add up to for a mid-list author. As you scroll through these numbers, please remember that I’m just one author and my royalty reality does not represent the number of sales every single mid-list author can or will make. But hopefully it helps part the fog that seems to be over author sales, at least a little. Let’s dive in:
WHOBERT WHOVER, OWL DETECTIVE (2017, picture book)
$10K Advance
29 copies sold this period; 27 hardcover + 2 e-book
No royalties earned. These bad boys moved the needle by about 30 bucks. I’m still just over $2K from earning out over seven years after publication.
PORCUPINE CUPID (2020, picture book)
$10K Advance
397 copies sold this period; 390 hardcover + 7 e-book
No royalties earned, BUT I’m super happy with sales this period because they went up from 65 copies last period, most likely due to the fact that Valentine’s Day (and this is a Valentine’s PB) actually fell in this earnings period. BUT BUT my eyes deceived me last time because I looked at the wrong column for how far I have to go to earning out. I thought I was about $4.4K from earning out (but that was how much I had earned toward earning out). In reality, I’m $5.3K away. Whoopsie! At this rate I should earn out in about 13 years. 😅
MERMICORN ISLAND Series (2021, four chapter books, joint accounting*)
*Joint accounting means all four books in this series were grouped together in terms of royalties, so that I wouldn’t earn royalties until all four books earned out
$34K Advance (For all four books combined)
2,680 copies sold this period across all formats (Going into detail of paperback, hardcover, e-book, and fairs for all four books is tough with these ones, but typically most of these are paperback editions sold at book fairs)
$599.05 royalties earned
JAY’S GAY AGENDA (2021, young adult novel)
$40K Advance + $10K sales bonus - I forgot to include this bonus in the last royalties roundup of JGA, but this was earned by hitting a royalties threshold (earning back $35K of the $40K advance) within one year of publication. Thank you to everyone who has ever bought a copy!
4,435 copies sold this period; -187 hardcover (these are returns) + 3,186 paperback + 363 e-book + 886 audiobook
$3,108.86 royalties earned
OUT OF THE BLUE (2022, young adult novel)
$40K Advance + $10K sales bonus (Thank you, merfriends!)
5,138 copies sold this period; 1,285 hardcover + 2,758 paperback + 404 e-book + 691 audiobook
$1,894.81 royalties earned. Unlike last period, this means I’ve now earned out the sales bonus! Thank you, thank you, thank you again to everyone who has ever bought a copy of OOTB!
NEVER FORGET ELEANOR (2023, picture book)
$17,500 Advance
142 copies sold this period; 123 hardcover + 19 e-book
No royalties earned. I’m still about $8,800 from earning out.
RILEY WEAVER NEEDS A DATE TO THE GAYBUTANTE BALL (2023, young adult novel)
$50K Advance
1,908 copies sold this period; -2,541 hardcover + 1,805 paperback + 42 e-book + 61 audiobook
No royalties earned. This is a rough one since there were so many hardcover returns that it outweighed the sales in all other formats this go around. I went from being $32.5K away from earning out to now being $35K away from earning out. My poor little femme gay 😩
THE SPELLS WE CAST (2023, young adult novel)
$40K Advance
1,320 copies sold this period; 51 hardcover + 330 e-book + 939 audiobook
No royalties earned. I’m still about $30.7K away from earning out.
TOTAL ROYALTIES EARNED THIS PERIOD: $5,602.72
So, if you’re keeping track, that’s an increase of just about $2,400 from last period. Let’s add both royalty statements together to get my yearly earnings from royalties.
TOTAL ROYALTIES EARNED THIS YEAR: $8,812.35
Even though that’s not a ton of money, it still blows my mind that people buy my books and I have the opportunity to get any royalties at all! Full disclosure, I have a phenomenal husband who pays our bills, so there isn’t a burden on our family when I have lean years. This will be a very lean year for me. With this and money I’ve earned from some performance work and speaking fees, I will have only made about $16K in 2024 unless I can get a book sold or get more acting work in these remaining two months, which could be tough!
For comparison, last year I made $88K, and the year before I made $126K. In these years I got 2 two-book deals, sold foreign rights, optioned one novel, and earned those sales bonuses y’all have been so phenomenal helping me attain. I wanted to share these numbers so you can see the wide range of yearly earnings that are possible when you’re a mid-list author (and I’m positive the range can get even wider!), and to show that if you’re ever planning to budget as a full-time writer, you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have, the numbers to crunch and see how you can stretch those dollars out (doesn’t have quite the ring of The Facts of Life, does it?).
Next statement I’ll have the sequel to THE SPELLS WE CAST on it, and my YA Christmas rom-com, FLOPPING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND, which comes out on Tuesday, November 12th! If you’d like to order a copy (which I’d be so, so grateful for, as I am for every copy of any of my books that any of you has ever bought!), you can find all the links to buy this joyous holiday romp from your favorite retailer here!
On another note, we’ve officially passed the one year mark of The Ventorship, and I wanted to thank you all for making this newsletter such a supportive community for me and each other. My previous me-focused newsletters never felt fulfilling or helpful, but I couldn’t be happier to be here onboard this metaphorical cruise ship with all of you as we sail the writerly seas together ❤️
That’s all for now, fellow sailor-authors! If you have any questions about royalties or these statements, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get right back to you. Or, if you’d like to remain anonymous, you can always email me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com.
Until next time!
-JJ
If you’d like to vent about anything author/writing related, write to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject: VENTORSHIP. I’ll give you my take in a post, and we’ll crowdsource author opinions in the comments. You’ll remain anonymous, and any haters will be thrown overboard. Ultimately, I think you’re going to be buoyed up by author love and support as we realize we really are all in the same boat 🛳️
The transparency! This puts so much into perspective as well— mostly the gamble of it all for publishing advances. They put a lot on the line on a hope and a prayer that sales will reflect their faith. I wonder how many six figure deals ever earn out. You know my life I’ll probably be that lady on Titanic (since we’re in a ship) “It’s been 84 years…” lol Oy!
Thank you for sharing with us!! And happy one year anniversary of the Substack!