Survey says: the publishing game’s a difficult one

This week there’s been a veritable font of information about what’s really happening in the publishing world. Much of it is not for the faint of heart, but it’s all incredibly worthwhile knowledge.

First I direct you to Justine Larbalestier’s follow-up to her original essay on first novel advances. She also links to a rather eye-opening piece by Australian writer Ian Irvine, who goes through pretty much every publishing milestone and explains why every writer has to lower his or her expectations at every step along the way. On the one hand, it’s depressing as hell; on the other, it’s incredibly liberating to realize just how dicey the prospect is, and how much persistence can pay off.

Then there’s Tobias Buckell, who created a survey for SF/F authors in order to compile meaningful data on advances, earnouts, and everything in between. Now he has preliminary results, and as Beatrice points out, if you’re looking to break into that genre, Tor’s probably your best bet. Buckell based his survey on the one conducted over a four-year period by romance writer Brenda Hiatt, who compiled similar data for the romance genre.

So now I want to do the same thing for mysteries and thrillers. Because I believe that sharing data — and only data, because there’s no reason to put your name and your reputation to this information — will benefit us all. Especially since, as Buckell’s survey indicates, it takes a while (5-7 books) for a science fiction or fantasy author to get advances that are beyond mere pittance, and I assume the same goes for the mystery world as well.

Look for this survey to go live in a few days, at which point it will live on for the remainder of the year on the right-hand side of the column.