Young House Love

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How Much Money Do You Make When You Write A Book?

Let’s take a second to chat about how the book bid-ness works, at least for us. Sometimes we get hilarious and adorable comments like this: “Holy cow, your book was a New York Times bestseller! Congrats! You must be rich!!” …

Instagram Bestseller

… and it makes us realize that other than fleetingly mentioning how the whole book deal thing works in this blogiversary video (around 17:10 near the end), we haven’t really talked about it at all. So since folks have been requesting more behind the scenes details on the subject (even from as early as September of last year when we did the Q&A video below) this post is well overdue. Let’s dive in and over-share, shall we? Spoiler alert: we’re cheap-os and we know it (please sing that to the tune of “we’re sexy and we know it” out loud in whatever room/office/subway car you’re currently inhabiting).

As we mentioned in the video, this book thing has always been for the fun and the amazement of seeing our names in print. It has never been about money, which is a good thing since that’s not usually what comes a-rollin’ in when you’re a first time author (well, not unless you’re Lena Dunham apparently).

The way that a book usually works is that the author gets a fee for all of the work that they do before the book comes out. This is called an advance. In our case, being first time authors, it was a modest advance. Someone like Stephen King might be able to buy a yacht with his. Ours… no yacht. Actually, if you break our advance down across the time over the past two years that we’ve spent outlining the book, writing the proposal, pitching the book, writing the manuscript, revising the manuscript, doing projects for the book, shooting the book, and editing the book we probably made around five dollars an hour while working on it (we didn’t keep a time log or anything, but that’s our best guess). So yeah, John probably earned more per hour at his high school library job of shelving books than he did writing one (especially since he’s splitting that $5 wage with me – ha!).

ShootDay1 Manuscript Ready

But you won’t see us complaining. It’s an amazing opportunity (one we’d almost be happy to have done for free – just don’t tell our publisher) so that’s why we said “holycowyes!” to a book. If you’re a first time author like us, we actually wouldn’t recommend writing a book for the money (you’d probably be really let down if you were just in it for the dough). Instead, I’d recommend doing it for the experience and the thrill of seeing your words in a bookstore and your book on your mom’s coffee table… that’s a pretty freaking awesome moment.

Book Dummy Closed

The way it works, at least how it worked for us, is that first you get that modest advance (paid out in smaller installments throughout the book-writing process) and then a few years later after the book is out in print (it typically takes around 2-3 years for it to go from concept to being printed) you get into the “book royalty” area. We’ve been told that many authors only earn their advance but never “make it” to receiving royalties, since it necessitates selling enough books for the author to hit their royalty point. See, the publisher actually doesn’t pay us a penny until their book sales earn back all of the advance they paid us plus money they spent on the illustrator, the photographer, etc. So it’s not until they earn all of that book-making money back that we’ll start receiving royalties (which are also pretty modest since we’re first timers).

We’re nowhere close to hitting that royalty point. Maybe in a year or two we’ll get there. Maybe sooner. And maybe never. But assuming our publisher eventually makes all that money back, they’ll start issuing our little royalty checks twice a year. Once we hit that point we’ll make around a dollar or two per book (royalties are a very small percentage of the heavily discounted price that a bookstore pays per book, which is usually around half of the book’s cover price – and it can vary by vendor). But as of today, we haven’t seen a book check since the last installment of our advance came a year ago.

Cincy Sherry Amongst Books

So we thought that was an interesting tidbit to share. We never really knew how it worked, so learning that an author doesn’t get paid when the book comes out or with the sale of each book was enlightening to us. And a year ago if we saw someone get on the NY Times bestseller list, even for just a week, we’d probably assume they no longer use toilet paper and prefer to use hundy dolla bills to wipe their bestselling author buns. It’s so not like that around here. We use gold bars. Just kidding. Those would be cold.

We also always assumed authors got paid when they toured – even just a little bit to offset the work they’re unable to do while on the road (our tour stretches over four months) but that isn’t the case, at least for us it’s not. But they cover the travel expenses and dude, we’ve had the opportunity to meet so many of you! And I’ve achieved my lifelong goal of getting to sign ceramic animals! And that, my friends, is the beauty of book-writing. Plus, you know what they say: Mo money, mo problems ceramic animals and then your husband wants to kill you.

Cincy Signing Greyhound

Another reason we thought this post would be helpful is that we don’t want to embark on any big projects without explaining that we’re paying for them in the same way that we’ve always paid for things (the old penny-saving-over-time method that we know and love). Our book agent actually said it’s somewhat rare for a first time author to make more money on the back end of a book than on the front end (meaning that your modest advance is usually the most any first time author will see from a book) so we’ve known that from day one, which is really nice when it comes to setting expectations and all that good stuff.

As is the case for a lot of other things in our life, we did this for the love. Corny but true. The fact that you guys share photos like this with us? Seriously, it makes our chests all swelly and bursty. Even John’s stony man-heart.

YHL Reader Grid2

Plus when it came to the actual deals that publishers were offering us, we wanted to choose who we worked with based on things other than the money. For example, a few other publishers wanted to create a big $50 coffee table book with us, and we felt a lot less comfortable with that. So one huuuge reason that we went with our publisher (thereby choosing this deal) was because they “got us” and allowed us to be our dorky selves on every page while slapping an approachable price tag on the thing.

Book Us In Door1

So all of this is just to say that we’re more committed than ever to keeping it real, saving cash whenever we can, and squirreling away extra pennies towards future projects, just like we always have. There’s no Rolls Royce and Beverly-Hills-ish plastic surgery in our future but I fantasize about completely different things anyway. Like Clara’s big girl room. Dude, who’s excited about Clara’s big girl room?! $herdog is beside herself (you know she only uses the third person when she’s really hyped). Last night I was making up rap names for the whole family. Burger could be Potato Skinz. And Clara could be Small Fry. Catchy, right? And I tried to change John’s name from J-Boom to Applebeez or Bloomin’ Onion but he wasn’t having it.

Update – Some of the most frequent requests that we get are for info about professionally blogging (how we made our site, how we grew our following, how we make money, etc) so we shared all of the details about how we started a blog, grew our traffic, and turned it into a full time job. 

Comments

  2. Tania @ Run To Radiance says

    Thanks so much for sharing! I always assumed NYT best sellers got swimming pools of gold coins and parades everywhere they go. :P

    Your book is my favorite design book of all time- so just imagine a mini parade in your honor! :)

    Reply

  3. Anja says

    The behind the scenes info is so interesting! For most of us it’s so far away it’s not even a line on the horizon (more like the tiny dots that we usually accidentally produce on our favorite pair of jeans while painting)… ha ha! Anyhow, now I’m smarter than before and that’s more than most people can say about their average Tuesday ;-)

    Reply

  4. Alison says

    See…posts like these are why I love your blog. There are a lot of talented designers/DIYers/home decor bloggers out there, but your openness with the nuts and bolts details of your business is both refreshing and enlightening. I knew that first time authors don’t make much on books, but I never knew WHY. Now I get it. All thanks to you guys. I feel so lucky to have found your blog!

    Reply

  5. Laura says

    Thank you so much for the insight- i had NO idea that’s how it all worked out! I definitely appreciate that you guys kept it at a reasonable pricepoint!!!

    I didn’t read through all the comments- but did you share how many you’ve sold to date? If that is the rudest question ever- please ignore it! Just wondering with all the cities you’ve been to how many have flown off the shelves so far!

    xo lp

    Reply

  8. T.G. says

    Obviously we were all curious about this, but I suspected that you guys weren’t swimming in it Scrooge McDuck-style, since this was your first book.
    I saw Augusten Burroughs speak a few years back and he said, “contrary to popular belief, no one shows up at your door with a van full of cash when you become an NYT best-seller.”…thus crushing all of my pending get-rich-quick schemes.

    Reply

  11. Brynn says

    Love that you guys keep it real! Its so encouraging to see other people who do the save over time method, rather than run up a credit card bill! Sometimes I feel like I’m nuts when I tell people we have to save up a bit before I get x or y, but you guys make me feel normal (somewhat, I guess, since I know I am not normal!)

    Also, mostly unrelated, but the link to Lena Dunham, if you hover over it, says she “sings” a book deal. That cracked me up.

    Reply

  12. Elle says

    Hey guys! I’ve been reading the blog for a few years and I told my husband how excited I was to attend one of the book signings in DC, even while heavily pregnant. However, our daughter decided to make her appearance 5 weeks early so I was a bit busy and couldn’t make it. Knowing that I love your blog, my sneaky husband got a copy of your book signed and surprised me with it for Christmas. Thanks so much for signing a copy for a new mama, it was a really fun surprise. Oh, and the kid and I are doing just great and now I tooootally understand how you guys feel about your little one. :)

    Reply

  13. Leslie says

    Love you and your book, and it sure seems like you have a fan club… you bring great joy to us readers, that’s worth more than money!

    Did you mean to type hundy dolla ?

    Reply

  14. Amy says

    I work for a publisher selling translation rights and was just curious if there were plans for editions of your book in other languages? I stopped by your publisher’s stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair (Germany) last fall to see if I could get a sneak peak, but no dice :) Congrats on your success!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Ooh, we’d love to see our book translated in other languages! That would be so exciting! We’d definitely blog about it (we hear the cover changes too, so it’ll be funny to see a totally different cover for a book in another language!).

      xo
      s

  15. Wendy says

    Your honesty and respect for your work is refreshing. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    May your Tuesday be as spectacular as what you bring to others.

    Reply

  16. Anne says

    I never understood why people get upset when bloggers become successful and actually make decent money from their hard work. Even if you had made a “killing” on your book I honestly think my response would be, “good for them for getting paid for putting in all that work”. Oh well- I will keep reading whether you are wiping with gold bars or regular ol’ TP like the rest of us because you are funny and have great ideas and I don’t think that would change if suddenly you had a little extra cash to pad Clara’s college fund.

    Reply

  17. Christa says

    So, in case you’re wondering, I had to break out the mental floss after the hundy dolla bills/ gold bar comment. But no hard feelings, as this was an extremely interesting and enlightening post.

    Thanks for keeping it real, and making the little person behind her computer feel like she too (okay, me) can have a beautiful kitchen/office/nursery by saving her pennies just like you. Though no hard feelings if this time next year you find yourselves rolling around in the cold hard cash Scrooge McDuck style!

    Reply

  19. Tricia says

    Wow–super interesting. I had no idea book sales worked like that! I pretty much assumed: Book sells a lot of copies, Author gets lots of money. The End. ;)

    Reply

  20. Natalie Royall says

    First I would just like to say that you two (4) totally deserve to wipe your buns w/ slightly warmed gold bars… LOL. BUT I am so glad that your affordable projects won’t suddenly be un-affordable. There are too many design blogs who say… here is a super affordable project and they are talking over $1000. I was so excited about your book coming out and was blabbing on and on about all the projects I want to do, that my husband actually said… Let’s buy another house where you can do all these ideas! Hahaha!

    Reply

  21. Pam says

    I have never commented on anything other than a contest entry post before, but I just wanted to say thanks for sharing this information with your readers.

    It’s honestly none of our business how much money you have or don’t have–our interest in your finances should begin and end with how much money and time you spend on a particular project. That said, your transparency about your book sales and finances in general is both educational and consistent with your general authenticity and openness in all matters.

    So thanks for both schooling me on the publishing industry and also in making me feel good about the amount of time I spend reading this blog. Y’all are awesome.

    Reply

  22. Amy says

    Quote of the day: “Plus, you know what they say: Mo money, mo ceramic animals and then your husband wants to kill you.”

    I can just see that cross-stitched all the wall. Thanks for sharng your story, though we probably all agree that if aanyone deserves to be filthy rich off of how wonderful they are, it’s the P-sickness (no, that rap name isn’t quite right…)

    See you in Portland on Saturday! eeee!

    Reply

  26. Lindsay says

    girl – you are cray! and i love it!!

    i am stoked for clara’s big girl room! we don’t have any kiddos of our own, but i am totally with you on loving kids’ room designs. maybe someday…

    Reply

  27. Lauren says

    I get so much out of your blog every week and I know tons of other do to! Your book was #1 on my Christmas list because I wanted to support you all for all of what you have given to me over the years!

    Don’t know much about the publishing world but so glad you all share your experiences. I am super curious about one aspect that you haven’t mentioned: how many copies of your book have sold so far? I have no idea what number it takes to be a NYT Best Seller. 100,000, 1 million, 100 million? Please just give us a ballpark!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      The number of books that it takes to be a NYT bestseller definitely varies by the week, and it’s one of those algorithms that even the NYT will not disclose (there are tons of ever-changing factors, so one week it might take far fewer sales than another to make the list, it’s easier to get on the list in a niche category like home improvement than in a broad category like non-fiction which is highly competitive with lots more books, etc).

      We don’t have any hard numbers on how many sold to get us on the list, but it’s nowhere near 100,000. My best guess would be around 10,000, if that. Maybe 5,000? One other thing that also had to do with us making the list is that the first week a book is released, the “sales” numbers include all of the pre-sales. So anyone who pre-ordered the book for the months leading up to that release date were all counted for that initial week as well as all of the new orders that came in when the book was released. So the accumulation of those pre-sales over months and months was the thing that helped push us onto the list for one week, haha! It was such a crazy surprise, because even with the pre-sales we didn’t think we’d ever hit that mark. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  28. Belen says

    My husband is also a first time published author, and his deal works almost the same as yours.
    He gets 10% of the publisher’s profit of each book sale, so if the book is sold for $15, the seller gets $5, the distributor $5, the publisher $5 and my husband $0.50. I don’t think anyone can make a living out of writing unless you’re J.K. Rowling.

    Reply

  29. Kelly says

    I always appreciate how open you both are with the questions everyone is wondering. I think a lot of bloggers would be much more cagey about it and if anything would inflate the financial side of things to make them feel better about themselves.

    I’ve heard of this reality before at conferences and I do think it’s good to give people a realistic view of things. I do think a lot of people assume if they sell one book they will strike it rich so it’s better not to go in with false hope. That said I do think it is discouraging how much work it takes vs. how much you get paid. You’d think that something that has the power to touch so many people would be worth a bit more in the hands of the author. It makes you wonder if for most people having a well-trafficed blog is a better income earner than having a well read book. So interesting that given that dynamic so many bloggers salivate over a printed book but I get it, it’s a tangible thing and feels more legitimate.

    Reply

  30. Jeannette says

    I love your rap names! I have them too in my house. Mine is J-Dog and my husband, Keith, is K-bomb, which everyone laughs about because of the potty humor undertone. I think everyone needs a rap name!

    Reply

  31. Kirsten Oliphant (kiki) says

    I have my MFA, which is a fancy way of saying I have a fairly useless masters degree. Because of that, none of this is really news to me, and yet it’s still a great reminder. I just forayed into the self-publishing world with a few non-fiction books that are in the christian arena (you can see them here: http://www.amazon.com/Kirsten-Oliphant/e/B00AH0969Y), though my degree is in fiction. It takes for- freaking-ever to get things published traditionally, like you mentioned in your post. Self-publishing with ebooks is interesting, and has been really neat, though not financially amazing. The cool thing, again, is having your work in someone else’s hands or, in your case, coffee table. :)

    Thanks for sharing! Some people might not want to humbly admit that being a bestseller doesn’t earn them the big bucks, and I appreciate that you guys tell us everything. We still think you’re rock stars.

    Reply

  32. Chaney says

    I love this post (and y’all! and your book!). I always find the behind-the-scenes stuff so interesting. Thanks for oversharing. The comments so far on this post are really fun to read too. I learn so much from your posts like this and the comments you get in return. Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  33. Robin says

    regardless… CONGRATS! You made a book! So cool to hear behind the scenes stuff though. Maybe you’ll get a little dough from the book down the line for a fun fund/Clara’s college.

    Reply

  34. Alice says

    I don’t have a rap name, but perhaps I should dream one up. In the meantime, Burger Bunz just popped into my head for Burger!

    Reply

  36. Amy B says

    Very much appreciate the post , thanks for sharing! I totally understand if you don’t answer this but must ask out of curiosity, did you ever consider a 1 book deal and (question part two) if you had would you end up making more from book #2? Just seems to me that you’d be in a better bargaining position that way but am wondering if I’m missing something!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It’s always amazing to snag a two book deal for a first time author because it guarantees you get another book (which isn’t usually guaranteed at all. So instead of turning it down to “gamble” and assume we’d do well enough to get another deal later for more, we just snatched it up. It was a huge compliment that the publisher had so much faith and interest in us, and it definitely wasn’t all about the money :)

      xo,
      s

  37. Anne G. says

    My first job out of college was working for a lawyer who was in the midst of writing a book. I did a lot of work on that book, and when it was finally done, we both agreed that it wasn’t worth all the effort. It was an important book that hopefully helped some people, but it sure didn’t make any money. Since then, I’ve edited several other books, so I know the amount of work that goes into them, and how more often than not they really don’t make a lot of money. Only a few rare authors actually make good money, and that’s only because they sell ridiculous numbers of books, and get movie deals, and work their butts off to crank out book after book (like JKRowling, and the guy who wrote The Notebook and Dear John). Anyway, you don’t have to explain anything to THIS reader.

    Reply

  38. Sam says

    You guys are awesome! This post cracked me up, but I expected you’d be wiping with hundys so this answered so many questions for me! So glad I can stop wondering that. But for realsies, you guys rock my sox and if your next book is $50 ill still buy! I may have to drop out of college but seriously..priorities!! Xoxo

    Reply

  39. Carla says

    This was really informative. Thank you! I’m familiar with the world of book deals and advances, but I didn’t realize that you have to sell enough books before your royalty kicks in. I just assumed that hitting the NYT bestseller list and all those tours and sold out books added up to a very nice check. So I was shocked to learn that you’re nowhere near that mark yet. I was really bummed to hear that. You’ve put so much work into that book. But the tours were a really nice bonus and, like you say, having your book in people’s homes and on your mom’s coffee table. Anyway, thanks for sharing. We were all very curious, I’m sure.

    Reply

  40. Bonnie says

    Thanks so much for sharing this, it was really interesting. I figured first-time authors likely don’t make enough to retire, but didn’t realize how long royalties can take. Also, while I never see y’all as the Rolls Royce types anyway, or to start wallpapering money on your walls, it’s nice to know for sure. :-) And while I can’t begin to express my admiration for doing the book for the love instead of the money, I do hope y’all did get or will get a nice chunk so you can splurge on something without thinking twice–you truly deserve it!

    Reply

  41. Annelise in Edmonds says

    I’ve said it before and have to say it again! I love you guys! Very interesting on the reality of book making! I hope you see royalties very soon!

    Looking forward to seeing you on Friday in Tacoma, Washington! Hopefully it won’t be too rainy for you when you arrive! Cheers!

    Reply

  42. Morgan says

    Oh man, I still can’t believe you guys won’t make it to Southern California! I tried to talk my work into a ‘work trip’ to the Bay Area next weekend but they didn’t buy it and exclaimed that expenses were too tight this month, maybe next. Not helpful to me and your Palo Alto book date.

    San Diego will miss you :(. Tear.

    Reply

  43. Katie says

    How did the book change the “business” side of your blog, if at all? Did it drive traffic? Just make you even busier & slow things down? No impact? I’m not surprised to hear that you weren’t making money on the book but wonder if the book or tour is “paying dividends” in blog marketing.
    Thanks for sharing this!
    Katie

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Our blog’s traffic is following the same gradual curve that it has followed since we started five years ago, so interestingly enough we didn’t notice any jumps when the book came out or anything! We are definitely super busy squeezing out posts for all the times we’re traveling so keeping up with the blog during everything has been a bit of a challenge but its all for a great cause (getting to meet people and thank them for buying our book) so we can’t complain!

      xo,
      s

  44. Stacy says

    Will you be at the Tacoma Home and Garden show each day of the show or only in Friday? I’m hoping to e able to make it Saturday evening or Sunday morning!

    Reply

  45. JoAnna says

    Thanks for reassuring us that you are still real people with real budgets. If you had made piles of money on the book, what would you spend it on? Or, if you added up all the things you want to do to the house, do you know how much you are looking at? I only ask such a personal question because you are so candid about your budgets for home improvements.

    Reply

  47. Laura says

    Wow! I had no idea!

    I would still love it if you’d call Tori Spelling back and tell her you’d do a TV show…a girl can hope.

    Reply

  48. Carol says

    Warm fuzzies from fans, loving what you do, and keeping priorities straight aside, I think y’all deserve a raise! Here’s hoping John can come up with some kind of algorithm (or simple algebra equation – it’s all greek to me!) that will calculate maximum hours of input to yield $10/hour!

    Reply

  50. Katy@TheOpenDoor says

    Thanks for sharing! I love hearing about the behind-the-scenes book writing venture! Also, I love how this post goes totally random in the last couple sentences. I’m certain this is one of the many reasons why so many people love you guys. :)

    Reply

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