Payments to authors: advances and discount clauses

The first, and no doubt one that publishers will deploy in their defence, is the substantial sums that leading houses commit to advances. Bloomsbury's recent accounts, for example, show advances of more than £22m, as well as a provision of more than £5m against upfront payments that are not expected to be earned back within a year (or perhaps ever). When Bloomsbury and others set advance and royalty payments against net revenues from book sales, they may well find that they are paying authors about 25% of the receipts. As a percentage of the profits, that sum may represent an almost 50/50 split.