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Fair Rate for Tech. Authors?

Posted by michael on from the pay-for-play dept.

vbrtrmn writes: "I have been offered the opportunity to co-author a programming book for a major publisher. The publisher has made an offer, but I'm not sure if the offer is standard or if I am getting shafted. Have any of you written books before? What is a fair rate?"

1 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Fair rates for books by RichDice · · Score: 5
    I'm still trying to figure this one out myself...

    I got US$20/page for something I wrote back in '96. I was dumb (well, naive) and poor back then, and I was willing to listen to the acquisitions editor when he told me that "some of [his] better authors write 4 chapters a week!" That sounded pretty good to me... US$2400 a week, maybe. Wow!

    I'm not sure who these people are that can do that (hacks? machines? hack-machines?), but it's sure as hell not me. I try to budget 3 hours or so per _page_ right now, if I want for there to be any quality in it at all. Even that, that's probably not even fully-allocated time. It doesn't include:

    • interacting with the editor/publisher in the first place
    • brainstorming
    • dedicated research
    • follow-up after you've submitted your rough to the editor/publisher
    • probably a bazillion other things I'm forgetting about right now (maybe I'd blocked those things out of my memory for the pain involved...)

    The next book project I did, I was offered it at US$20/page again (enough though it was 2.5 years later, the market had changed, I had more experience, etc.). I asked for US$25/page, and was given it immediately. (Which can only make you wonder what the "true upper limit" on such a thing is.) Still, the money was garbage for the work I had to put into it.

    Even then, don't just look at the money. The "standard contract" for a book that most tech publishers give you is... well, to call it one-sided doesn't even begin to describe it. :-) If you hope to have any kind of personal involvement or control over the project or what happens to it after publication, you're likely in for quite an uphill battle.

    Love him or hate him, Philip Greenspun has some interesting things to say about the publishing business for tech books. To a greater or lesser degree, I agree with him. Check it out... http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/dead-trees/story.h tml

    Does all this mean that I won't write again? No way! I love writing, and I keep going back to it time and time again. I might even be getting better at it over the years, and that puts me in a better position to negotiate contracts, pitch ideas, plan the book the way that I want the book to be, etc. It's hard work, and there's a lot of BS involved, and the pay isn't great, but it can be incredibly gratifying to do.

    Please feel free to mail me if you'd like to talk any more about this.

    Cheers,
    Richard