Many first-time authors, including entrepreneurs with the desire to write a book, dream of landing a book deal with a big publisher like HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, or Simon & Schuster. One of the biggest attractions? The advance. That piece that gets you paid up front to write and publish the book.
Traditional publishers sometimes offer authors a lump sum of money upfront, which sounds like a dream come true. But what most new authors don’t realize is that an advance is NOT free money — it’s a loan against future royalties, and you won’t see another dime until the publisher earns back every dollar of that advance, plus any additional costs and expenses they deduct.
If you’re considering traditional publishing, holding out for your book to get picked up by one of those big guys, you need to understand exactly how advances work — because for most authors, they don’t turn out to be the payday they expected. While all publishers do things a bit differently from another, and any one may even provide different contracts to different authors, this is in general how it often works.
A book advance is an upfront payment that a traditional publisher gives an author before the book is published. This money is essentially a loan against future book sales.
In other words, your book has to sell enough copies to repay the publisher before you start making money again.
Here’s how a typical advance scenario plays out:
1️⃣ You sign a publishing contract and receive an advance — let’s say $50,000 (so that we can use nice round numbers).
2️⃣ The publisher handles editing, cover design, formatting, and marketing (to an extent, you may still need to do some or all).
3️⃣ Your book is published, and it starts selling. Yay!
4️⃣ You earn royalties on each sale (usually 5-15% of the book’s sale price, amount varies).
5️⃣ But… you don’t actually get paid those royalties yet —the publisher keeps 100% of them until they have made back their $50,000 advance.
Once you “earn out” the advance, then you start receiving royalties—but only on future sales.
Let’s say your book sells retail for $20 per copy, and your contract gives you a 10% royalty rate. Again, nice round numbers for our example.
That means you earn $2 per book sold (while the publisher keeps the rest $18).
To “pay back” a $50,000 advance, your book would need to sell 25,000 copies before you make another cent.
But here’s the problem: Most books don’t sell anywhere near that. Especially for first-time authors or those without an established readership base.
Here’s a harsh truth about traditional publishing:
📌 Most books never “earn out” their advance.
📌 Many books sell fewer than 5,000 copies TOTAL.
📌 If your book doesn’t sell well, you never make a single cent beyond your initial advance.
The publisher won’t ask for the money back, but if your book underperforms, good luck ever getting another deal — most publishers won’t sign you again if your first book lost them money.
Here’s another surprise clause in many publishing contracts: Even if your book is selling well, you might not get paid yet.
That’s because publishers can deduct “marketing and promotional expenses” from your royalties before you start earning.
Even after you earn out your advance, your earnings per book sale are shockingly low compared to self-publishing.
| Publishing Model | Royalties Per Book |
|---|---|
| Traditional Publishing | $1 – $2 per sale |
| Self-Publishing | $7 – $10 per sale – or more since you can often set your final retail price |
📌 Self-published authors keep 35-70% of the book’s sale price (depending on the platform).
📌 Traditionally published authors only get 5-15%.
Even after going through the years-long process of traditional publishing, you make FAR less per book sale than self-published authors do.
Let’s break down how much a traditional publisher earns per book sold, using simple, realistic industry estimates for a standard paperback business book.
📌 Retail Price: $15
📌 Printing Cost: $5 (Large publishers often print in bulk, reducing costs.)
📌 Author Royalty: $2 (Based on a typical 10-15% royalty rate.)
Now, let’s calculate the publisher’s gross profit:
$15 (retail price) – $5 (printing) – $2 (royalty) = $8 per book profit
🚨 But if you haven’t earned out your advance yet, the publisher keeps your $2 royalty as well, meaning they make $10 per book sold until the advance is repaid.
That $8-$10 per book goes toward:
✔ Paying editors, designers, and marketing teams if they aren’t directly charging you for these things (though many authors still have to do their own marketing!)
✔ Covering operational costs and retailer discounts
✔ Profits for the publishing company (profits are okay, that’s how businesses stay in business)
This is why publishers only take on books they believe will sell in high volume—because they rely on thousands of copies sold to make a real return on investment. If your book doesn’t sell well, they’ve already covered their risk with your advance and the rights they control—while you walk away with nothing beyond that initial payment.
If you self-publish, you skip the middleman and keep most of that $8-$10 per book in your own pocket—without giving up control.
A lot of first-time authors assume that if you sign with a traditional publisher, they handle everything for you—editing, cover design, marketing, even booking book tours and media appearances.
Umm… not exactly.
Yes, traditional publishers provide editors, cover artists, and formatting teams, but here’s what they don’t tell you:
That means if your publisher spends $10,000 on PR and $5,000 on having your book edited, you now need to earn back $85,000 instead of $70,000 before you make a single cent in royalties.
Well, the good news is that the publisher usually just eats it, they won’t be billing you (but I would always check the contract). This is also why it’s so hard to get your foot in the door, because they’re taking a BIG risk.
In our example, we have the advance, marketing, PR, editing at a total cost so far of $85,000. If your book only sells 5,000 copies (with a $2 royalty per book), here’s what happens:
That’s $75,000 the publisher never got back—so they’re taking a loss, and they will probably never sign you again.
📌 You never see another royalty check – Since your book didn’t “earn out” the advance, the publisher keeps 100% of royalties from all sales, meaning you’ll never receive any additional earnings from book sales.
📌 You may struggle to get another book deal – Most publishers won’t sign an author whose first book lost them money. They’re investing in books to make a profit, so if you didn’t sell well, they likely won’t take another risk on you.
📌 They own the rights to your book – Since they paid for the advance and contractually own the book’s rights, you can’t just self-publish it later or repackage it for new sales without their permission. If the book underperforms, it often goes out of print, and you have no control over what happens next. If it’s out of print, you can’t even get new copies for your own business use.
🚀 This is why self-publishing is often the smarter move—you keep full control and get paid for every single book sale instead of gambling on whether you’ll ever earn beyond an advance.
If you’re writing a book to establish credibility, grow your business, or generate leads, self-publishing is the better choice.
🚀 You keep 100% of your earnings—no waiting to “earn back” an advance.
🚀 You make higher royalties per book sale (35-70% vs. 5-15%).
🚀 You own the rights to your book—you can republish, revise, or sell it however you like.
🚀 You control your pricing, branding, and marketing strategy.
But self-publishing does require work—which is where Unscrewed Publishing comes in to help you.
Traditional publishing provides services like:
✅ Professional editing
✅ Cover design
✅ Formatting & distribution
But here’s the thing—you don’t need a publisher to get those things.
At Unscrewed Publishing, we offer:
✔ You can DIY it or we can provide everything traditional publishers provide—without taking your royalties.
✔ Flexible self-publishing services—get as much or as little support as you need.
✔ Full control—you own your book, pricing, and profits.
Instead of giving up control and losing royalties, you can self-publish professionally.
If you’re a celebrity, influencer, or industry leader with a massive audience, traditional publishing might be worth it.
But for most entrepreneurs, self-publishing is the better option.
If you want to publish on your own terms, keep more of your profits, and still have access to professional editing, cover design, and formatting, we can help. We can walk you step by step through DIY, completely white glove your book, or anything in between.
Let’s talk about your book and the best way to publish it.
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