Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 

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Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction

Are advances falling and are writers taking on more financial risk 

themselves?

98%

2%

YES

NO

One survey respondent talked about how they used to receive 

advances of above £50,000 for a book, now down to £5,000. Another 

spoke of how their advances had shrunk from £40,000 to £10,000 

– with a major publisher. While many acknowledged their advances 

were never enormous, there was a feeling that they had recently been 

‘decimated’, in the words of one respondent. There is a more positive 

spin, but only within this bigger picture of falls. As one senior publisher 

from a major London publisher told us:

When I first came into publishing big advances were de rigeur. People 

would think nothing of spending £50,000, £70,000 or more on a 

novel. But then that did all change. After the recession things really 

tightened up. Big authors would of course get huge advances, but for 

the midlist it shrank. Often even a £15,000 or £20,000 advance for 

a very promising novel would get thrown out. That is changing now 

though. Over the past three years I’d say that from where I’m sitting 

advances have started edging up. People are relaxed about spending 

again. It’s also worth saying that aside from this when everyone sees 

the potential of a book publishers have always been willing to reach 

for their cheque books. I’d also say that, as is commonly known, 

sales, marketing and management all have a huge say on what gets 

bought at what price.

The reasons given for falling advances are varied. Increased competition 

from more authors, the recession and, depending on how you look at 

it, greedy or cash-strapped publishers were common ones. However, 

the most common comment of all, from both interviewees and 

respondents, was of a widening inequality; that while some advances 

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