Once upon a time, back when I was a young junior magazine editor, I’d hear about people getting book deals and quitting their day jobs. I imagined them floating away on their piles of money to live a romantic life in the South of France or something. How naive I was!
I ignored a few articles written back then about the cold reality of book publishing. They talked about how authors who had generous advances found themselves quite broke quite quickly, not necessarily because they were irresponsible with their money, but because they didn’t realize the way to cash flow worked with publishing until far too late. But first, let me back up.
What is a book advance?
A book advance is simply an amount guaranteed by the publisher to an author no matter how well the book sells. It’s essentially an investment in the book. But the advance isn’t fully paid in advance.
Instead, it’s divided over three to six payments.
A portion of the advance comes upon signing the book contract. Sometimes, you receive another if you deliver some proof of progress on the book. Another comes after the publisher accepts the manuscript (this could be after a round or two of editing). Then you might receive another when the book is published, and sometimes, you don’t receive the rest until a year later.
So that means a juicy $150,000 advance divided into four payments could amount to $37,500 a year before paying taxes and an agent if one was involved.
Cookbooks, with all of the ingredients to buy, recipes to test, and photographs to shoot, are expensive to produce, and very often, those expenses come out of the author’s pocket.
The reason it’s called a book advance is because it’s an advance against royalties. This means that to earn any more in royalties, you must sell enough books to “earn out” the amount of your advance. So for each sale of your book, a certain percentage (which is outlined in your contract) is deducted against your advance until you finally sell so many books that you receive money from royalties.
It’s estimated that between 20 and 30 percent of books ever earn out their advance.
What is a normal cookbook advance?
While some cookbook authors earn some significant dollars from their books — superstars like Ina Garten, Chrissy Teigen, and J. Kenji López-Alt come to mind — they are the exception and not the rule.
There is no one “normal” cookbook advance just as there is no one “normal” cookbook deal. Authors with large and deeply engaged platforms — whether in print, on TV, or online — can easily receive at least a six figure advance for a single book as can authors who have written successful books before. They also have more power when negotiating their contracts.
Advances for authors with smaller platforms are usually, well, smaller, ranging from a thousand dollars to high five figures. The amount depends on several factors, including how marketable the idea and how good the content is.
When is it worth it to accept a small book advance?
A lot of this is an individual choice. Can you support yourself financially regardless of how much you receive as an advance? Are you willing to see your first book as a stepping stone to more work? In those cases, accepting a small advance could be worth it for you.
Either way, whether you have a tiny or substantial advance, I think it’s best if authors look at their first book as an investment. So much time and money go into the process of making the book that if you stop to figure out the hourly rate, you might cry.
I do think it’s ideal if you can at least cover the expenses of producing the book with your advance. For example, if your publisher expects you to pay for the photography, you want to be clear about what a photoshoot might cost before signing on the dotted line.
Some publishers offer smaller advances and pay for the photography separately, which can make a smaller advance easier to handle. Plus, a smaller advance means you need to sell fewer books before receiving royalties.
A breakdown of my first book advance.
In 2014, I signed a deal to write Modern Potluck with Clarkson Potter for $60,000. I’d say this is a decent advance for a first-time author with a smaller platform like me. And I was thrilled with it. But you’ll see how quickly it got eaten up by expenses.
First payment: $25,000 after the contract was signed.
$3,750 went to my agent.
$16,000 for photography (I set this aside after learning the budget would be approximately $25,000).
$5,250 left for ingredients. (I’m sure I spent more.)
In 2015, I turned in the manuscript, and after a first round of edits I received, $11,000.
$1,650 went to my agent.
$9,000 plus went to photography.
In 2016, the book came out! I received $12,000.
$1,800 went to my agent.
A significant portion went toward travel for book promotion.
I paid taxes on whatever “profit.”
In 2017, I received another $12,000.
$1,800 went to my agent.
I paid taxes on the “profit.”
So, a $60,000 book deal and I maybe took home $12,000 over four years for thousands of hours of work. During that time, yes, I had the privilege of living with a partner who helped share the financial load while I also took on other freelance work. Still, who in their right mind would do this?;)
Of course, most of us don’t write cookbooks exclusively for the money. We do so because we love this work, but love and passion alone, unfortunately, don’t pay the bills.
As an investment, it was totally worth it for me. In my case, it opened the door for me to work with other authors to help them write their books, and it helped me grow my profile as a freelance writer.
If I haven’t scared you too much and you still want to write a cookbook, check out my guide Do You Want to Write a Cookbook? It goes step by step to help you choose and refine your idea and help you figure out whether you’re ready to start writing.
