Getting paid: Advance vs Royalties

Instead of advance payments Pulp Press offers a much higher rate of royalties, over twice the usual rate in fact. This is because the current market does not support a business model that operates a non-refundable advance on royalties system. It just does not make business sense. In these uncertain times it would be one hell of a job to try to predict a how many books will sell prior to the fact. I have managed to successfully do this for Indepenpress Publishing Ltd, Pulp Press’s parent company, but have been very wrong in a good few occasions as well.

Of course this has not been popular with established authors and their agents who have expressed an interest in publishing with Pulp Press. It is also interesting that even decent agents don’t seem to realise the costs involved with publishing and, also, how much we get shafted by distributors. I have found on many occasions that even the good guy authors and agents do not take into account very few of our needs as publisher in dealings with us which is an aspect that you don’t see very often at all when thrashing out a partnership in any other sector.

We obviously want to keep Pulp Press being a viable company and give the authors the best returns possible on their output and that is why we do not offer advances but a much higher rate of royalties. Because we do not offer advances, we do not tie our author’s up in five book deals etc, leaving authors to come and go as they please as long as the output is the stuff we’re looking for.