Breaking News
Authors feel the pinch as recession-hit publishers cut advances (England)
Source: Times Online (UK) (6-11-09)
Historians turn to fiction as advances are slashed.
Authors are seeing advances reduced to a quarter of what they could have expected two years ago as publishers react to the recession by minimising risks.
Among the hardest hit are historians, who have found that books that would previously have earned them an advance of £120,000 are now commanding only £30,000. Some academics have turned from serious history to historical fiction to earn more money.
Tristram Hunt, who is believed to have received an advance of £100,000 for his biography of Friedrich Engels, said that he knew of several colleagues who had taken up fiction because it sold comparitively well. “There is a dangerous tendency among historians to slide into historical fiction, which must be avoided at all costs,” he said.
Another accomplished history writer, who declined to be named, said that publishers were using the recession to take advantage of authors. “I know a very successful female historian hawking a book on a very marketable topic who was only offered £25,000 for three years of work. It’s pretty serious when something like that happens. There is no reason for it, because book sales are only down by about 5 per cent, which compared to shares and so on is hardly anything.”
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