The rest goes to the retailer and the publisher, who recoups the cost of printing and distributing the book. This is around 10 percent of the cover price, excluding GST - so if a novel sells for $35 at a bookstore, less than $3.50 will go to the author. Once a book has "earned out" its advance, authors start receiving royalties from each copy sold. It's an advance on the money the publisher expects to make from sales of the book. When a book gets accepted for publication, publishers pay the author a sum of money called an advance, with half of the sum paid when the book is accepted and the other half paid once the book is actually printed, Chidgey says. She gives The Detail a peek behind the curtain into how authors get paid for writing books. "Even if I wasn't bringing in any money at all from the writing, I'd still be doing it, because I'm driven to do it." * Catherine Chidgey by Aimee Cronin and Jane Ussher It's a prestigious prize, too - carrying a $64,000 pay-out to the successful author.īut Chidgey's not in it for the money. She's just cracked the shortlist for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for fiction in this year's Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, for her 2022 novel The Axeman's Carnival. "I don't recommend this schedule for anyone out there. She does the school run, goes to her day job as a lecturer in creative writing at Waikato University, gets home, dinner, and then she's in bed - again, writing. Podcast: The Detail Does it pay to be a top author?ĭoes it pay to be a great novelist in New Zealand? The Detail talks to two authors about how they make a living spinning a good yarn.Ĭatherine Chidgey has been writing novels for almost 30 years - and she's one of our most celebrated writers on the scene at the moment.Įvery day, she's up at 6am, writing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |