Brent Ghelfi has served as a clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals, been a partner in a Phoenix-headquartered law firm, and now owns and operates several businesses. He has traveled extensively throughout Russia, and lives in Phoenix with his wife, a former prosecutor, and their two sons. He is currently working on the sequel to Volk’s Game. 

AR: Did you have to hold another job or be supported by someone to be able to write VOLK’S GAME? 

BG: In my case, I’ve been in law and business for a while. I recently sold a business and had money from that and was able to spent a couple of years where all I did was write. One of the books I wrote was VOLK’S GAME. Since then, I’ve purchased a couple of other businesses so I still work full-time doing other things besides writing. Because I’m older and because I sold that business I was able to take a couple of years and not have any income while I wrote that book and a couple of others that have not been published.  

AR: Was your advance a standard one? 

BG: I think it’s probably much bigger than average. I don’t have a whole lot to base that off of, just the writers that I’ve met. I’ll give you an example: a good friend of mine is a writer. He’s published dozens of books—two of his books have been optioned for movies, pretty big deals. One of those books was published initially by a local publisher here and the advance was less than $5,000. This is from an established writer, a terrific writer and one who, in my mind, would have surely been somebody commanding a large advance, but had less than $5,000 in advance. Now, because the book has sold well I’m sure his royalities have been really good, and I know his movie deal made a lot. I think the amount that I got was probably about right for a national publisher who envisioned a pretty big print run for the book, 75,000 copies, but that was determined after they bought it so I don’t think there’s a correlation between the print run and the advance I made. There may be, but I don’t think there is. The reason I think that is because the print run was determined after they had the book in Advance Reader Copy (ARC) form. 

AR: Did you have any bargaining power or did you have to accept what you were offered? 

BG: My agent did the bargaining and he told the publisher that they were getting a first look at the book and if they didn’t go for it it would get taken to auction. I’m not sure if that bargaining power had any effect or not, but I know we got an offer within 24 hours. It’s part of my contract for my third book that they have a 30-day window to negotiate exclusively, and after that if we don’t agree to terms then I can take it to other publishers.  

AR: Are there any literary or marketing skills you possess that affected your advance amount? 

BG: Purely based on what they think the potential for the novel is. Back to my established writer friend, because he had so many books, it hurts him in the sense that he has a track record. They know how many books he sells, so they base his advance on what his average book does and he was never a huge seller until fairly recently. I think they tie it to that. In my case, it was purely how much the editor that made the purchasing decision liked it, and I think that’s true pretty much everywhere. Agents work with the editors, they try to find an editor that would be interested in the kind of book that you’ve written. In my case, my editor really liked the book and saw the potential for it, saw a market for it, sort of a niche she was trying to develop with her publisher at her house. I think she went to bat for it internally with the various committees that have to give it a thumbs up before they go with it and I think it was based on all those factors. My book happens to be based in Russia, it happens to take on national and global themes, which makes people compare it to other books with similar themes. In my case, probably Martin Cruz Smith in terms of potential audience. Whereas if a writer is writing about more personal, smaller themes, that sort of thing, the market might not be that big and the advance would reflect that. 

Another great example is a woman writer based in Phoenix. She writes youth fiction and is a big deal. Someone told me they read in a trade magazine that her most recent advance was $750,000 so she’s a huge deal. Once someone’s established with a proven track record, then the numbers can be astonishing. For most writers it’s hard to get those big advances.  

AR: Is making a living off your writing an option for you? Does it interest you? 

BG: I’d love to do it, it probably depends entirely on how well this first book sells, maybe how well the second book sells. I would continue to work at it, and the goal is to get an advance that’s a little higher on the third one than the first two and keep going that way. It takes a lot of luck too. 

AR: Are you seeing any return on royalties? If not, do you expect any more income from your novel? 

BG: Not yet, my book just came out June 12^th. The other component is international sales. The first contract I signed I kind of laughed like “what does that matter?” but it does. International publishers pay a lot of money for the rights and so my book sold in I don’t even know how many different countries. It’ll be translated into at least seven languages so far. When international companies pay, they pay an advance as well and that contributes towards the publishers and I get a percentage of that, which then applies to my book advance.  

I think for someone for whom the expectations were fairly high, which is reflected in the advance, I think where the US publisher has put that much money toward it, then the international buyer will read it and make a decision about whether to buy it. 

AR: One author mentioned that the size of an advance correlates to the amount of effort they expend in marketing it. Do you feel this is true? 

BG: No question, he’s right. For someone who’s mega-rich already if they were saying that this is a labor of love, then I would say that’s great, it needs to be a labor of love. But when you go to sell that book, negotiate hard for as much money as you can get for that reason. It does reflect the level of commitment the publisher has for the book. If they pay a little then the odds are that they’ll only spend a little bit of time and effort marketing it. If they pay a lot then they’ve got a big investment and it’s in their interest to sell a lot. 

AR: I understand you’re working on a sequel. Was this any part of the bargaining process?  

BG: No, it helped me to get an agent. The first book I wrote went out with query letters to six or seven agents, one of whom was interested enough to sign me up, and as you know, an agent doesn’t get the money unless I do, so they have to delay the project. That book never sold. The second book I completed was VOLK’S GAME, which did sell. I sent him the first three chapters and my agent liked that one a lot better, so he concentrated his sales efforts on that one. 

It was a two book deal, but the second book was bought based on a synopsis that I did. The first book had a character they liked, had a setting they liked… they asked if I had an idea for a second one and I had a synopsis. And based on that they bought the synopsis as well. 

AR: Do you have anything else to add, words of encouragement to struggling writers? 

BG: Make sure you love doing it. Make sure it’s exciting and interesting to you because if it’s not then it won’t be interesting to someone else trying to read it. I think that anybody that gets into writing with the expectation to be rich and famous it’s a big mistake, it’s like the kid at the inner-city school that thinks he’s going to be an NBA star. No matter how great you are, it’s a combination of that and a whole lot of luck. I know there are some brilliant manuscripts sitting in the bottom of desk drawers right now that probably will never get published. Even if they do get published, they may or may not be successful, however good or bad they are. I think John Grisham is a really talented guy and has a great knack for anticipating market, but I don’t think he’s by any stretch of the imagination the best writer out there. A lot of different things came into play for his success. I tell people, if you love it then you’re doing it for the right reason. Then you just have to be smart about getting the right agent, someone who’s working hard on your behalf, and if you do get a chance to get a deal, negotiate as hard as you can for the most you can get. 1, because you deserve it, and 2, because it will make the publisher work harder on your behalf, and 3, if and when the book comes out, do everything in your power to promote it and make it successful.