Publisher’s Lunch, email digest version of Publisher’s Marketplace, today defined the terms they use to describe book deals in their reporting…
"nice deal" $1 – $49,000
"very nice deal" $50,000 – $99,000
"good deal"
$100,000 – $250,000
"significant deal" $251,000 – $499,000
"major deal"
$500,000 and up
What universe are they living in where $100,000-$250,000 is simply "a good deal" and $250,000-$499,000 is "significant?"
Or where the “nice deal” rule starts at one dollar and ends at 49k… Knowing how long it takes to write a book (I am a member of this family after all), $1 hardly seems like a nice deal to me.
Snob!
Remind me to send you the link to the scale John Scalzi posted. I freely admit I got a shitty deal. No, that wasn’t what Scalzi called it (thought he would have). That’s what Clint Gaige called it when he made the offer. (Had my agent and I talked only a week or two sooner… At least Clint’s honest.) Scalzi replaced Nice through Good with the terms
“Shitty,” “Contemptible,” “Meh,” “Not Bad,” “Shut Up!” and “I’ll Get the Next Round.” When your name is Connelly or Crais, you’re getting the next round.
So basically, if the publisher takes me to the Borders across the street and buys me a large chai ($3.15), I got a nice deal.
I’ve never really had a problem with the way PM breaks down deal prices. Yes, getting a buck is certainly not a nice deal but chances are that deal wouldn’t get reported. But when we’re talking newsworthy deals (i.e. the ones everyone gets jealous over), they are generally the ones from 250 grand up.
On can only hope, dream and write, I want money, i’m poor, right now i’m a writer, that would be happy with “with write for food”