MemeMachineGo!

This sobering survey shows that the median advance for a first novel in science fiction and fantasy is $5000, ranging all the way up to a median of $12,500 for experienced authors.

I often read in Locus about book deals in the “mid-six-figures.” PNH explains:

The reason for all that cloudy “mid-six-figures” language is so that authors and (in particular) agents can imply that they got much better deals than they did.

How to turn $33,000 per book into a “mid-six-figure advance”? Easy. Start by selling six books, which gets you to $200,000. Add on escalator clauses—hefty chunks of further advance payable for each week on the New York Times bestseller list, or if one of the books is adapted into a motion picture that opens on at least X number of simultaneous screens—and pretty soon the total amount theoretically payable on this contract is up to $400,000, the generally-accepted lower boundary of Mid-Six-Figures territory.

And of course, even the basic $200,000 is unlikely to be payable all at once. More likely, a fraction of it will be paid on signing, and the rest split into increments to be paid at certain miletones, such acceptance of each finished manuscript, and also first publication of same. So unless the writer cranks out at least two books a year, they’re probably still making less than a legal secretary. However: Mid! Six! Figures!