with Adriann Ranta

A veteran of publishing, Jessica began her career in 1994 as an acquisitions editor at Berkley Publishing and Macmillan, where she had the unique opportunity to acquire and edit both fiction and nonfiction. Just some of the many titles she worked on include a number of books in The Complete Idiot's Guide series and the Edgar-nominated mass-market fiction series Gaslight Mysteries by Victoria Thompson. Jessica takes her editing experience to the Bookends literary agency, where she works closely with her authors to create the best possible proposal submissions. A native of Minnesota, Jessica now lives in New Jersey with her family and their very spoiled dog, Sadie.AR: Speaking in generalities, what is your agency’s spectrum of advance amounts? What percent of your clients make enough to live off of?

JF: I think less than 10% make enough to live off of, it also depends on how you want to live. Living off your advance is one thing, living off your royalties is another. Except for big, bestselling authors, few can make a living off their advance, but a lot can live off their royalties.

AR: What do you tell your clients to expect when you take them on for representation?

JF: It really depends on what I’m representing. If it’s something like a cozy mystery or a romance, an advance can be as low as $2,000, depending on where you’re selling it to, especially if it’s a previously unpublished author. If it’s an author with more experience, was on a bestseller list, then we can certainly be talking much higher than that. And that really depends on how successful the book has been. Those numbers would be based on previous sales and what you got on the last book, in terms of the advance and royalty amounts. I would say for a previously unpublished fiction author I think you could expect $5-15,000 on the low end.

AR: Do you think genre is the main deciding factor?

JF: The deciding factor in what you get paid, regardless of what you write, is how many copies the publisher thinks he can sell.

AR: What goes into that?

JF: A lot of made up numbers. If you’re published, you have a track record. What they’re going to look at is your previous sales. If you’re not published, the publisher is going to consider how other similar books have done in terms of sales. They usually want to earn out that advance in the first year—it’s not how many they can sell in the lifetime of the book, but how many they can sell in the first year. They look at things like printing and production costs, and the market as a whole. If the market is averaging only 20,000 copies a year you’re not going to get the same kind of advance as you would in a market that’s averaging 50,000 copies a year.

AR: What do you think is the most successful genre?

JF: Statistically speaking, the romance audience is the largest audience. In terms of making the most money, it’s a case by case basis. Somebody like Laurel K. Hamilton who started out as a fantasy writer makes a whole lot more than a brand new mystery writer. It just means you can’t compare the two.

AR: Do you think the size of the publishing house affects the size of the payout?

JF: Going with one of the big publishers versus a small independent press or a university press means you’re going to make more money. All of these houses have exceptions to the rule—everybody can point to a small or independent press that had a New York Times bestseller. Bigger houses have more money to spend. They also tend to have bigger distribution.

AR: Do you think that smaller houses tend to take bigger risks than larger ones in terms of what they represent?

JF: I don’t know if I’ve seen that. I do think big houses take risks all the time. I don’t think writers necessarily feel that, but I think they do. Having been an editor and sat in editorial meetings, fairly frequently I would see editors given permission to buy a book simply because they were really passionate about it and the house was more likely to give it a chance. Fairly recently we had a book that was a first time author in science fiction that has done phenomenally well just because the publisher got really excited about it and put everything they had behind it.

AR: How often does intuition or passion influence a publisher’s acquisition versus business savvy?

JF: I think it’s actually about 50/50. I think for a book to even make it to the point where it’s being considered by the publishing house as a whole an editor has to have that intuition or passion to get behind it. Even if it’s what would be considered a typical genre book, there has to be a gut feeling of passion behind it.

AR: In general terms, do you see any correlation between quality of writing and what a publisher’s willing to pay?

JF: Not necessarily. It’s not just about writing, it’s also about marketability. When you’re talking how a publisher envisions a book, a lot goes into how they can market it and how well they can sell it. While the writing has to be there, so does the idea. It could just be another amazingly well-written book, but if it’s just another mystery that’s not going to stand out in any other way, a publishers going to have a hard time getting behind it.

AR: Do you think marketability is the most valuable quality in a first novel?

JF: Personally, yes. It also has to have a lot of things, but for a first time novel if you can come up with a really interesting hook, that’s what’s going to get you in the door almost more than anything else. Once you have a track record and your name itself is the marketable product, I don’t think you have to worry so much about the hook.

AR: What about the author? How important is a platform?

JF: In fiction, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think it matters. If you’re a forensic psychologist writing a book about forensic psychology, it helps because it makes it more interesting to the reader and the publisher that you actually have the background you’re writing about, but I don’t find it’s necessary. Certainly someone writing about aliens probably doesn’t have the personal experience.

AR: Can you make any generalizations about the financial particulars of book deals in the past few years? Have advances increased or decreased?

JF: Honestly, I don’t see advances changing, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. When I was an editor almost 15 years ago, the advances that I was offering were very similar if not the same as the advances that are being paid now. Again, this is all for a first time author. They have improved a little bit, but not 15 years worth.

The truth is, I think it’s important to remember an advance is not what you’re getting paid for your book. The royalties are what you’re getting paid for it, and the advance is just an advance on royalties. When the publisher takes on a brand new author, it’s like taking a risk. There’s no track record so they’re going to pay an advance that limits that risk as much as possible, so they’re going to try to lower the advance. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the author. I always remind my authors, “think about it this way, if this book is really worth that much more money you’ll earn it out in royalties, we’ll prove them wrong, and the next book we’ll be able to negotiate that much higher.” Which also protects the author a little bit. When the publisher takes a big risk and pays a huge advance on an author that’s unproven and the author doesn’t perform to the level they need to in the way the publisher had hoped, they’re less likely to take a risk on that author for future books.

AR: Do you have anything else to add to an author that’s trying to make a living from their writing?

JF: If you want to make a living off of your writing, you need to do more than write books, at least initially. There are a lot of great ways with magazines and newspapers. Authors I have that really want to make a living often write more than just books. Then over time as their careers grow, hopefully they can survive just on what they make on their books. Don’t expect to pay off your house with your first book deal.