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Seeing the writing as art and publishing as just business is so simply insightful, we *should all understand this, but it is also so very difficult to detach from our work and internalize it 😅
I sat UP when you talked about aesthetic-centered vs. theme-centered works for cyberpunk (& dark ac!!!) ty for your thoughts and insights, you are such a gift to this space!
I think your thoughts on being a full-time writer vs writer with a day job are so, so important! For a long time my dream was to be a full-time writer, but after being unemployed recently, I discovered that I thrive creatively when I have structure *outside* of writing. I actually wrote way less when I was unemployed because I knew I wasn't in a place to make any money from it, and ironically having all the time in the world to write made me write LESS. Now I have a (luckily very chill) day job, and I'm finally making progress on my novel again! The dream of being a writer looks different for everyone! And down the line I still might pursue fill time writing if I'm in a place to do so financially and comfortably, but for now I'm happy with it being a supplement to a day job for as long as I can balance both.
Some added detail and context from another trad pub'ed author: Usually with a big publisher you will have your advance divided into three or four. One payment on signing the contract, one on having a 'final' edited version of the manuscript accepted by the editor and sent off to copyedits/proofreading, one when the hardback comes out, and the final amount when the paperback is released (so three if straight to pb). If you sign a deal in, say, November 2024, and your book is due to come out June 2026, with the paperback due January 2027, even if you netted a big deal - over 100k - that is a relatively small amount for each payment over four years or more, especially after agent fees and taxes on each chunk. In addition, if your advance is - again - 100k, you don't just need to sell 100k's worth of books to sell out. A lot of people are confused about this aspect of trad pub. The advance is *against royalties*. So (and this is waaaay more simplified and streamlined than it will be in real life) your contract may say that you get a 10% royalty on hardback sales and 7% on paperback, and 12% on ebook. So if your hardback sells at the full recommended detail price, let's sat 20 (pounds, dollars, whatever) you'd get 10% of that. If the paperback is 8 (pounds, dollars) you get 7% of that. And for ebook, which might be selling for the same price as the hardback, pb, OR for 99p/99 cents, you get 12% of that. And you have to accumulate enough ROYALTIES to pay back the 100k. Enough of those much lower percentages. And then! In your contract will be a clause that downgrades the royalty to lower percentages, some really tiny, on 'volume sales' or in any case where the publisher is selling the book to suppliers at a lower rate than the full recommended retail price which, guess what? Is nearly always. Which means your 10% is now 5% actually, and that is 5% of, let's say, 45% of the NET proceeds of sale for the publisher ('net' being, after the publisher have taken aaaall their overheads off) when they flogged 5,000 of the book to a discount book store. So now your 20 hardcover makes you 10p/10per sale. Which means the publisher can have easily recouped your advance and the rest of their investment and be into profit on your book while you are still years away from earning out. Which is WHY most books don't earn out. If they all flopped and lost money, publishers would be out of business. Publishers make at least a small profit on *most* books, and a decent one on many. But the advance is the only money most authors see. Don't let anyone sell you the idea that your book failed if you didn't earn out.
35:09 as someone who predominantly writes (and reads) fantasy, i loveee how you describe cyberpunk as a genre, and it makes me more interested in reading cyberpunk books!!
ive been saving your recent videos to watch when I had the time to give it my fullest attention, and im so glad I did!!! because all this content is such a treat and so rich, full of amazing takeaways and so many interesting perspectives. thank you thank you for creating all this content !!!
you’ve been glowing in your recent videos! glad to see your mental health doing better after the summer. also i love the discussion about cyberpunk as a genre at the end and how genre should be more than set-dressing
Thank you again for posting this up. My weird scifi story with aswang, timeloops, and unrequited love might not be commercial enough for this world. Writing is, indeed, the reward for me! 🎉🎉🎉 I wish you luck on the next book and doing it full time!
@@PsychOnlineAldriani think a fear of not being commercial enough is valid but also hope it doesn’t stop you from putting it out there if you want to !!
Will def get back to the rest of this soon, but literally decided today that I'm done querying and moving on to a manuscript that I'm hoping to have fun with for mental health reasons. The fulls and queries out in the ether can stay there lol, but I gotta get back to the part that I love (and give myself more time to have better/healthy ways to handle querying the next time I do with the next manuscript) and I needed to hear the first question today exactly tbh. You're a gem for this! Congratulations to you again
💛💛💛 so sorry to hear about the querying stress. i hope you find the project that sparks joy again for you soon and i think not overstretching our emotional limits is actually so beneficial in the long run!
Absolutely love your videos and have really enjoyed following along on your journey. Can’t wait for Local Heavens comes out! I’ve added it to my Goodreads 😊
Oh, I didn't realize you were a Bindery author. I follow a few tastemakers, and I'm so curious to see how the house carves a place in the wider industry. It must be a bit nervewracking to be part of something so new but i guess its also great to be surrounded by people investing in such a modern idea for publishing
@@booksvsmovies it is nervewracking! but i feel very supported by my agent and my publishing team. I’m also very excited about the imprints they’ve started!
The conversation about cyberpunk and dark academia at the end was so interesting! I have a dark academia idea I want to mess around with after my current WIP, so I loved your thoughts on it! 😍 Thank you for talking about your process and being a Bindery author. It helped me understand what they were going for since they have new imprints and work with Tastemakers. I’m in an interesting position because I’m traditionally published (short story in an award-winning anthology), but I haven’t been agented yet (I’ve been querying my PhD dissertation novel since July 1st, my second time querying). The anthology earned out after 3 months, so we’ve been getting royalties and we were also nominated for a 2024 Lambda Literary Award earlier this year. I went through all the traditional publishing steps with the acquiring editor and author-editor of the anthology, so at least I know what to expect if/when my novel gets published. But I realize I’m lucky to be in that position and to be part of an award-winning anthology that has earned out. Very grateful. 🥰
Honestly, living in the Global South, I'm already kinda living in a cyberpunk society. Threats of being colonized economically by bigger foreign powers, rampant poverty and corruption, advanced technology amidst that poverty. Just gotta hangout in the clubbing or red light districts at night for the neon lights. And just missing the robots. So anyway, I'd also love to read more cyberpunk from other regions.
not to be self centered, but i've just accepted traditional publishing will not pick me without me fighting tooth and nail for it so i've decided to go the indie route lool
@@sunshinegirlonbeach1993 yes that is very low! i just picked a random number for example’s sake. but advances do range wildly from 4 to 7 figures depending on so many factors.
For cyberpunk books that don't eliminate the global south and discusses themes of race/class stratification, queerness, art as they live in societies where tech and bodies are becoming highly divorced, I highly recommend The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson -- a few years old now and a YA, but imo has really held up as a book with a lot of really interesting worldbuilding and character work.
To try everything Brilliant has to offer-free-for a full 30 days, visit brilliant.org/KMFajardo/. You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription!
Thanks to Brilliant for sponsoring this video 🚀✨
"Treat writing seriously, treat publishing un-seriously" was an immediate bop!
@@AdamFishkin i think i learned that from lynn lol
Lynn is a sage.
Seeing the writing as art and publishing as just business is so simply insightful, we *should all understand this, but it is also so very difficult to detach from our work and internalize it 😅
Facts!
I sat UP when you talked about aesthetic-centered vs. theme-centered works for cyberpunk (& dark ac!!!) ty for your thoughts and insights, you are such a gift to this space!
I think your thoughts on being a full-time writer vs writer with a day job are so, so important! For a long time my dream was to be a full-time writer, but after being unemployed recently, I discovered that I thrive creatively when I have structure *outside* of writing. I actually wrote way less when I was unemployed because I knew I wasn't in a place to make any money from it, and ironically having all the time in the world to write made me write LESS. Now I have a (luckily very chill) day job, and I'm finally making progress on my novel again! The dream of being a writer looks different for everyone! And down the line I still might pursue fill time writing if I'm in a place to do so financially and comfortably, but for now I'm happy with it being a supplement to a day job for as long as I can balance both.
Some added detail and context from another trad pub'ed author:
Usually with a big publisher you will have your advance divided into three or four. One payment on signing the contract, one on having a 'final' edited version of the manuscript accepted by the editor and sent off to copyedits/proofreading, one when the hardback comes out, and the final amount when the paperback is released (so three if straight to pb). If you sign a deal in, say, November 2024, and your book is due to come out June 2026, with the paperback due January 2027, even if you netted a big deal - over 100k - that is a relatively small amount for each payment over four years or more, especially after agent fees and taxes on each chunk.
In addition, if your advance is - again - 100k, you don't just need to sell 100k's worth of books to sell out. A lot of people are confused about this aspect of trad pub. The advance is *against royalties*. So (and this is waaaay more simplified and streamlined than it will be in real life) your contract may say that you get a 10% royalty on hardback sales and 7% on paperback, and 12% on ebook. So if your hardback sells at the full recommended detail price, let's sat 20 (pounds, dollars, whatever) you'd get 10% of that. If the paperback is 8 (pounds, dollars) you get 7% of that. And for ebook, which might be selling for the same price as the hardback, pb, OR for 99p/99 cents, you get 12% of that. And you have to accumulate enough ROYALTIES to pay back the 100k. Enough of those much lower percentages.
And then! In your contract will be a clause that downgrades the royalty to lower percentages, some really tiny, on 'volume sales' or in any case where the publisher is selling the book to suppliers at a lower rate than the full recommended retail price which, guess what? Is nearly always. Which means your 10% is now 5% actually, and that is 5% of, let's say, 45% of the NET proceeds of sale for the publisher ('net' being, after the publisher have taken aaaall their overheads off) when they flogged 5,000 of the book to a discount book store. So now your 20 hardcover makes you 10p/10per sale. Which means the publisher can have easily recouped your advance and the rest of their investment and be into profit on your book while you are still years away from earning out. Which is WHY most books don't earn out. If they all flopped and lost money, publishers would be out of business.
Publishers make at least a small profit on *most* books, and a decent one on many. But the advance is the only money most authors see. Don't let anyone sell you the idea that your book failed if you didn't earn out.
"Don't let anyone sell you idea that your book failed if you didn't earn out." yes, this!
“Writing is the reward and everything else is extra.” I needed to hear that as I am finishing my final revision before querying next year.
35:09 as someone who predominantly writes (and reads) fantasy, i loveee how you describe cyberpunk as a genre, and it makes me more interested in reading cyberpunk books!!
ive been saving your recent videos to watch when I had the time to give it my fullest attention, and im so glad I did!!! because all this content is such a treat and so rich, full of amazing takeaways and so many interesting perspectives. thank you thank you for creating all this content !!!
@@briellewrites tysm brielle 🥹🤍
you’ve been glowing in your recent videos! glad to see your mental health doing better after the summer. also i love the discussion about cyberpunk as a genre at the end and how genre should be more than set-dressing
Thank you again for posting this up.
My weird scifi story with aswang, timeloops, and unrequited love might not be commercial enough for this world.
Writing is, indeed, the reward for me!
🎉🎉🎉
I wish you luck on the next book and doing it full time!
@@PsychOnlineAldriani think a fear of not being commercial enough is valid but also hope it doesn’t stop you from putting it out there if you want to !!
No worries! I plan on throwing myself at trad pub, but I have a village to catch me. 😂
Write on!
kris, loved this video - thank you for all your wisdom and i'm so excited to read local heavens 💕
Will def get back to the rest of this soon, but literally decided today that I'm done querying and moving on to a manuscript that I'm hoping to have fun with for mental health reasons. The fulls and queries out in the ether can stay there lol, but I gotta get back to the part that I love (and give myself more time to have better/healthy ways to handle querying the next time I do with the next manuscript) and I needed to hear the first question today exactly tbh. You're a gem for this! Congratulations to you again
💛💛💛 so sorry to hear about the querying stress. i hope you find the project that sparks joy again for you soon and i think not overstretching our emotional limits is actually so beneficial in the long run!
@@KrisMF you're so, so kind, Kris! Thank you so much
Absolutely love your videos and have really enjoyed following along on your journey. Can’t wait for Local Heavens comes out! I’ve added it to my Goodreads 😊
Loved how chatty your videos are, literally listened to this as a podcast.
Your channel has become such a treasure trove of industry knowledge. Thanks for continuing to take us all along with you!
Oh, I didn't realize you were a Bindery author. I follow a few tastemakers, and I'm so curious to see how the house carves a place in the wider industry. It must be a bit nervewracking to be part of something so new but i guess its also great to be surrounded by people investing in such a modern idea for publishing
@@booksvsmovies it is nervewracking! but i feel very supported by my agent and my publishing team. I’m also very excited about the imprints they’ve started!
The conversation about cyberpunk and dark academia at the end was so interesting! I have a dark academia idea I want to mess around with after my current WIP, so I loved your thoughts on it! 😍
Thank you for talking about your process and being a Bindery author. It helped me understand what they were going for since they have new imprints and work with Tastemakers.
I’m in an interesting position because I’m traditionally published (short story in an award-winning anthology), but I haven’t been agented yet (I’ve been querying my PhD dissertation novel since July 1st, my second time querying). The anthology earned out after 3 months, so we’ve been getting royalties and we were also nominated for a 2024 Lambda Literary Award earlier this year. I went through all the traditional publishing steps with the acquiring editor and author-editor of the anthology, so at least I know what to expect if/when my novel gets published. But I realize I’m lucky to be in that position and to be part of an award-winning anthology that has earned out. Very grateful. 🥰
this was so awesome. thank you so much!! you’re an inspiration 🥰
This was super interesting 🍵❤
Honestly, living in the Global South, I'm already kinda living in a cyberpunk society. Threats of being colonized economically by bigger foreign powers, rampant poverty and corruption, advanced technology amidst that poverty. Just gotta hangout in the clubbing or red light districts at night for the neon lights. And just missing the robots. So anyway, I'd also love to read more cyberpunk from other regions.
How does your first line/paragraph make the reader feel? How does it set the tone? If you can share. Or how important is it?
This is probably weird, but your lip colour looks so edible! Like caramel or something, I love it :))
not to be self centered, but i've just accepted traditional publishing will not pick me without me fighting tooth and nail for it so i've decided to go the indie route lool
@@taliabasma6120 extremely valid! every writer is different and the indie route can be much more rewarding for many writers
Hi Kris! Was wondering if 5k is way too low an advance. I know that's an example but is that the norm?
@@sunshinegirlonbeach1993 yes that is very low! i just picked a random number for example’s sake. but advances do range wildly from 4 to 7 figures depending on so many factors.
You've mentioned the 'big 5' a lot, may I ask what that refers to?
@@abby_x_art big 5 publishing houses! (Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, HarperCollins and Hachette)
@ ahhh thanks for the clarification!!
For cyberpunk books that don't eliminate the global south and discusses themes of race/class stratification, queerness, art as they live in societies where tech and bodies are becoming highly divorced, I highly recommend The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson -- a few years old now and a YA, but imo has really held up as a book with a lot of really interesting worldbuilding and character work.
Everything I hear about trad publishing just sounds like an uncare package of stomach-aches.
@@therobinprince it really is. it takes a good chunk of luck to be rewarded by the industry
@@KrisMF Honestly, I have to banish all thoughts of publishing from my brain to focus on writing. Speaking of, see you in the stream! 🩵
you are so inspiring. I truly cherish and resonate with your messaging of creating *for* your mental health, not at the expense of it 🫶