Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 

40

   

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

continued to spiral upwards, most were coming down. We have already 

seen a huge spread between the very bestselling authors’ sales and the 

bulk of writers. While the evidence is less clear, it’s not unreasonable to 

expect a similar spread for advances, meaning that for the majority of 

writers they are coming down. 

Despite the general malaise there is still talk of the ‘super-advance’. In 

the wake of a flurry of deals before the Frankfurt Book Fair, Publishers 

Weekly talked about seven figure (USD) advances as ‘the new normal’

23

. 

Big advances do seem to work for literary books. Garth Risk Hallberg’s City 

on Fire, which had a seven-figure advance for US rights and reportedly in 

the hundreds of thousands for UK rights, was an 800-page, experimental 

literary book. Similarly Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones was a 1,000 page 

ambitious novel about an SS officer that also had a seven figure advance. 

Hari Kunzru’s The Impressionist had a reported £1.25m advance. These 

may not compare to celebrity advances (reported figures of Amy Schumer 

$15m, Bruce Springsteen $10m, for example) but they show the dream is 

not entirely dead. Many more advances, particularly in the context of the 

reluctance among British publishers, agents and authors to discuss them, 

will go unreported. 

Advances at this level often work in a ‘beauty parade’, offer, best-bid 

auction system. Hot books may be pre-empted for a substantial amount in 

order that they’re taken off the table. Off the record, we were told that the 

pace of pre-empts and auctions is happening more quickly. The preferred 

method for the most desirable books is the huge pre-empt to take it off the 

table within 24 hours of their having been seen. This will typically involve 

sums above £250,000. Many of the advances at this level are for debut 

authors. Without a sales track record, debut writers exist as pure potential, 

untarnished by disappointments that put retailers off future books and 

sap morale (and warn off investment) in publishing houses. Paradoxically, 

those with no background in the industry seem more likely to receive such 

an advance. The inverse experience is that of bruised midcareer authors. 

There is also the pressure of fewer bigger publishers at work here. Where 

multiple big publishers all see the potential in a bid, the costs can escalate 

fast. At times it is hard to escape the feeling that the ‘bandwagon effect’ 

may be at work here: because some people are going in, everyone feels it 

must be a good idea which creates a self-propelling momentum. 

Meanwhile, most authors are seeing their advances go down. In addition 

to the anecdotal evidence there is some limited data to support this. In the 

author survey ‘Do You Love Your Publisher’ the median reported advance 

was £6,000; this went up to £13,000 when just looking at advances from 

large trade publishers

24

. 

23      

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/64848-the-rise-of-the-seven- 

figure-advance.html 

24

   http://www.thebookseller.com/news/average-author-advance-under-6600 

---