September 21, 2005
I spent an hour at my youngest son's elementary school last night in a sweltering gym listening to the principal and a bunch of teachers go on about the new math program they're using to make math "fun" for our kids, etc. I had a lot of thoughts about this, not many all that positive--I'm not against them trying this, but I wish they wouldn't bash the way math has been taught for about 1000 years in the process and I was sort of wishing they could do it in a slightly less patronizing manner--and I thought I might do something here to show you the real world of math. So here, let's break down a book advance.

Let's say that you got a $10,000 advance on your book. A mini-poll with Mystery Writers of America would suggest this is about twice what you're likely to get, but it's an easy number to work with. Your agent takes 15% right off the top. You're now the proud owner of $8,500.

$8,500.

The federal government gets about 28%. But not 28% of what you get after your agent gets the cut, but from the original amount.

$8,500-$2,800 = $5,700

Aren't you happy. You've now got almost 50% of what you started with. Let's throw in state tax. In Michigan, that's 1.5%.

$5,700 - $150 = $5,550

$5,550.

Of course, publishers pretty much demand that a certain amount of time and money be spent on promotion. Let's assume for a moment that you wrote a mystery novel and wish to attend two mystery conferences a year, say Magna cum Murder and Bouchercon. I'm going to give an estimate, but I'll break things down for Magna and add a bit for Bouchercon and average the two.

$195 just to attend.
$65 per night for hotel (Magna's cheap). = $130
$150 for gas and/or transportation if you drive
Miscellaneous $200 (can be drinks, dinner out, a T-shirt)
That's $675 for Magna. Bouchercon is always more expensive and the hotel is always outrageous, so I'm going to $1000.
Total = $1675

$5,550 - $1675 = $3,875

$3,875

Okay. Let's say you felt the need to hire a relatively inexpensive publicist for four months, two months prior to publication, two months after. They have a base monthly fee of, say, $160, and for each event they actually book, they charge $40. In that four-month period you get 12 events, a mix of book signings and radio interviews.

That's $640 for thet base rate and $480 for the bookings, totaling $1120.

$3,875 - $1120 = $2755

$2755

Miscellaneous promotional stuff, such as postcards, bookmarks, postage. This can add up big time. Let's give a lowball estimage of $1500. Or, to make matters simpler, let's throw in the gas you spend getting to signings and call it $1755.

$2755 - $1755 = $1000

$1000 THIS IS YOUR PROFIT

Oh. Wait. Did I mention that you're self-employed and have a spouse and two children and you need to pay for health insurance? That's $1500 a month for 12 months, which equals:

$18,000.

$1000 - $18,000 = -$17,000.

And of course, if you want to eat, go to a movie...

Okay. Let's be fair. Drop the health insurance and eating.

PROFIT = $1000.

Of course, some of that is tax deductible...

Welcome to the new math.

Best,
Mark Terry