At the time I placed that story, I wasn't sure I could replicate the sale. Turns out, I could. I'm still after that elusive first pro-rate sale, and I'm receiving many more rejections than acceptances, but the sales have come at a steady clip. Not to mention, I've met some really amazing writers and editors along the way--some of whom visit this blog from time to time.
Speaking of class acts, I'd like to take a moment and say that Brett Savory and the rest of the folks over at ChiZine know how to do business. They don't need kudos from a no-name like me, but I really appreciated the promptness and professionalism of their response to a query I sent them regarding a story I submitted back in October. I may not have received the answer I was hoping for, but it was personal, positive and I didn't have to sweat very long.
That swift response provided me with the opportunity to submit the story elsewhere today. Hopefully, I'll have better luck with it there.
Man, once the royalty checks start rolling in, you can retire. Right? ;)
ReplyDeleteThat's what I keep telling myself.
ReplyDeleteSo, if I buy a book with a story that you wrote in it, how much money do you get from that?
ReplyDeleteHi Ben! Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question: it all depends upon the agreement with the publisher. In fact, the majority of places I've dealt with actually pay up-front upon acceptance or publication rather than doling out royalties over time. But when royalties have been involved, it's been in the neighborhood of 40% of total physical sales divided up between the authors, based on each author's word count in the anthology. And it also matters where you would purchase the book. For example, if you go through Amazon, Amazon takes a rather large cut for themselves which means the authors get less pie. But if you go directly through the publisher, there's less overhead and, therefore, more cash to authors. In any case, I'm not paying the bills with fiction yet.