Writing a cookery book

[confiseur]

In short I have been asked to write a book...mostly recipes..First print run of approx. 8000, $40/£20 per book retail.

I have been offered $10k dollars for this... A fair price or not?. It seems like photographers costs mega-bucks but I have not got a clue how the costs are generally attributed or who gets what.

I dont expect to make a fortune but dont want to be taken for a ride either.

Any help/suggestions much appreciated.

[The Old Foodie]

What are the other conditions of the contract? Is the 10K an advance on sales, then you get an increasing percentage depending on sales? What about subsequent editions?

I am sure you will get some good points from the e-Gulleters with legal backgrounds.

[rancho_gordo]

In short I have been asked to write a book...mostly recipes..First print run of approx. 8000, $40/£20 per book retail.

I have been offered $10k dollars for this... A fair price or not?. It seems like  photographers costs mega-bucks but I have not got a clue how the costs are generally attributed or who gets what.

I dont expect to make a fortune but dont want to be taken for a ride either.

Any help/suggestions much appreciated.

←

Are you famous?

Are you famous in your field?

I assume that's your advance and the photographer's budget is on top of that. Or does it come out of the 10k?

[Rehovot]

Look at your publisher's track record with the kind of book you're writing, and determine how much of your own publicity you'll need to do.

Look at retaining the foreign rights, if you can.

As far as I understand, there are three parts to the standard contract: signing, delivery, publication. Get a lawyer to read through them. Look at how much goes to your agent.

Are you expected to arrange the photography?

[confiseur]

Thank you for your replys...and yes I am a 'player' in my field but I normally avoid publicity.

Quite a shy person and like to let my work do the talking...

Thanks also for the point about foreign editions...

I dont have to pay for an agent or the photography...

Latest offer from the publisher:

... advance against royalties of $20,000, payable 25% on signature of contract,25% on delivery of manuscript and 50% on publication. An initial royalty of 10% of cover price would apply on all copies sold at standard book trade discounts up to 10,000 copies, rising to 12.5% on copies sold thereafter...

Excuse my naivety in such matters but is the quoted statement a good/poor deal?

Certainly not expecting to get rich on it, just dont want to sell myself short either.

[annambe]

Hi,

I recently did a bit of research on publishing for a completely different project and there are a lot of good resources to be found on the internet.

One that I found helpful was Ian Irvine's article "The Truth about Publishing", you can find it on his website. Of course this a different field, but the article should still be helpful.

Anna

Edited June 1, 2008 by annambe (log)