Expert: Susan Rand - 2/24/2009

Question
I am writing a book about the life of a friend - I happen to be a professional writer (national newspaper journalist), but have not written a book before - this is my first. She seems to think it will be a best-seller - whereas I'm not sure. She is writing chapters and submitting them to me - they are poorly written and need extensive rewriting, expansion and research. She cannot afford to pay me a fee up front for my work but suggested a royalty split. I suggested it should be 40 per cent for me and 60 for her, bearing in mind I will be doing the bulk of the work for the book. But she thinks this is too high. Could anyone tell me what a reasonable split would be? Many thanks in advance.

Answer
Hello Cathy:

As a professional myself, I would never accept any agreement to be paid in royalties: how do you know there will be any? It sounds like the project will require considerable time and effort on your part - if you do all that for her, you will, basically, have writen the book yourself, and should be paid accordingly. If you do accept a royalty agreement, I would not settle for less than 75% for you, 25% for her.

This is just my opinion, but I deal all the time with newbies, and if I was willing to rewrite on a royalty basis, I'd have 1,000 MS in my inbox within 24 hours. My experience with mentoring is that clients are eager to begin, but once faced with the actual writing, they quickly lose their enthusiasm and fold.

I'd think very carefully about this deal before making a decision.

I hope this helps. If it does, a nice rating would be greatly appreciated. I am proud of my high scores over 1350+ questions.

And thank you for writing!