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’
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. 
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
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. 
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http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/book-deals/article/64848-the-rise-of-the-seven- 
figure-advance.html 
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http://www.thebookseller.com/news/average-author-advance-under-6600 

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