What does it mean when a publisher drops a book?
It means they are either cancelling the book’s release or ending the author’s future partnership, meaning they will let the contract run its course and are not interested in continuing.
Why would a publisher drop a book/author?
The most common reason is a low sales to advance ratio.
Let’s say the publisher buys two books from you, at $50K each. Your total contract is for $100K and it is structured like so:
- 25K on signing
- 12.5K on acceptance of Book 1 (the first edit is done and the editor is happy with the changes)
- 12.5k on publication of Book 1
- 12.5k 6 months after publication Book 1
- 12.5K on acceptance of Book 2 (the first edit is done and the editor is happy with the changes)
- 12.5k on publication of Book 2
- 12.5k 6 months after publication of Book 2
Book 1 comes out and sells 10,000 copies in the first year. For the ease of calculation, we’re going to make it all ebook. We will price it at $10. The publisher gets $7 from each sale, and gives you 1.75, which leaves them with $5.25. I am simplifying the numbers here.
10,000 x $5.25 = $52,500
This book is doing well. The publisher isn’t quite in the black – there are still production costs, etc. – but this is a respectable sales volume.
Book 1 comes out and sells 5,000 copies in the first year.
5,000 x $5.25 = $26,250.
Sales could be better but it is not yet a loss. Some publishers might let it ride, because it takes time to build a series. Some publishers will bail at this point. They probably won’t cancel the contract, but they will stop investing additional money into the book. This is the point where they go to budget cover and scale down promotion and marketing.
Book 1 comes out and sells 1,000 copies. I’m not going to do the math. This is a failed release.
Going back to what I said about the ratio.
Let’s say the publisher lost their mind and paid you $500,000 per book instead.
- 250K on signing
- 125K on acceptance of Book 1 (the first edit is done and the editor is happy with the changes)
- 125K on publication of Book 1
- 125K 6 months after publication Book 1
- 125K on acceptance of Book 2 (the first edit is done and the editor is happy with the changes)
- 125K on publication of Book 2
- 125K 6 months after publication of Book 2
Book 1 comes out and sells 30,000 copies.
30,000 x $5.25 = $157,500.
If the author with a $50K advance had that sales volume, the publisher would be sending flowers and congratulations. But because of the $500K advance, our poor author is now deeply in a hole and the release is meh.
Some of the other reasons for being dropped might include:
Content problems.
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life by Kaavya Viswanathan was supposed to be a sensation. Viswanathan had written it just after high school, and the idea that a 19-year-old Harvard student could write such a compelling young adult novel made for great marketing. Unfortunately, the book contained plagiarized passages from the works of Megan McCafferty, Salman Rushdie, and Meg Cabot, and Little, Brown and Company ended up pulling it off the shelves.
Author problems
I’m not going to cite specific examples here, because I am pressed for time, but there were several cases where the author engaged in behavior that was toxic or harmful, and their books were cancelled because the author became too much of a liability.
Publisher changed direction.
This happened to us with Kate Daniels in UK. The editor who acquired the rights to the first three books left the company, and we were “orphaned.” Her successor wasn’t interested in continuing with the series, so we were dropped after the contract ran its course. Most of our KD releases in the UK are self-published.
Publishers are not all-knowing. Not every dropped book is a failure. Sometimes the publisher jumps the gun, decides that the book will not sell, and cuts the author loose, and then the book becomes a bestseller. Sometimes, they are right, and the book fails to find the audience. Sometimes it’s not even about the specific book itself. I know of a case where the publisher looked at their catalog, noted that the previous titles with a particular trope failed to meet sales expectations, and cut the upcoming book with that trope before it ever had a chance to come out.
One good thing about being dropped – the rights revert to the author, so they are free to self-publish or look for a different publishing partner.
To address some follow up questions:
Specific questions: We cannot offer any specific advice. We are not qualified to comment on individual cases, because everyone’s contract and circumstances are different.
What can the readers do: The readers do not bear responsibility for a particular book being dropped. Every sale matters, but we are talking large numbers, thousands of units.
My one advice would be that if you like a series, don’t wait until all of the books are out. Buy that first book, even if you save it for later, because if you wait and the sales of that first book fall short, the series will be in danger of being dropped and you may be left hanging. So please buy books from the authors whose work you like, please don’t pirate, and that’s about it.
First?
Thanks for the info. I have learned so much about publishing.
+1!
Certified 🙂
Thank you for sharing – it’s always interesting to see behind the curtain.
for once I’m the top 5! off to read 🙂
It’s interesting to see the reasons behind some of the decisions. esp if the series control reverts back to the authors.
On the example you have for the UK and Kate Daniels, would being able to self publish in the UK impact what you could do in the USA assuming that you were still contracted to a trad publisher in the States?
Publishing rights are licensed by territory, so the UK and US contracts are separate 🙂 . And yes, the Kate Daniels series is under traditional contract in the US.
You know what? The BDH has to be the best educated horde out there. Thank you for that!
Smaller publishers seem to drop authors a lot more often as well and most of them don’t pay an advance or only a very small one (in the one or two thousand dollar range from what I understand). I read three or four who had rights revert because the publisher drops the author and/or series. It’s very difficult for most authors to self publish because they don’t have experience with any publishing other than the small publisher. And a lot of writers simply don’t want that side of the job! It’s a tough industry and it’s not getting any easier.
Thank you for the examples and explanations!
This sounds so incredibly stressful!
Seriously interesting! Thanks! Years ago another author I like was dropped rather suddenly by her publisher. Her series is still going strong! Haven’t paid attention to whether she’s still self publishing or not, I’ll have to look.
I had no idea your UK Kate books were self published. I know you were still building a reputation and readership at that time, but I really hope that publishing house was so very sorry when your sales just kept growing! 🥂
Hope the Jean Kwok event was tons of fun!
Interesting… it does suck tho when a book in genuinely good but not enough hype or advertising was done and it fails because of it. I’ve got a couple series that were dropped sitting on my bookshelf never to be completed while a few others were self published as an ebook only after being dropped after book 1.
Dont publishers also be unkind to Authors who wont go out doing book junkets (apologies if that’s the wrong word but you know what I mean book tours), as one of my other favourite authors has social anxiety like myself and I believe his publishers dropped him as he cant (not wont) attend book tours, I mean if your afraid of social events and have severe panic attacks that’s a sound Cant not a being difficult wont.
Every situation and contract is different 🙂 – without knowing the details of that particular case, no one can confirm the reasons.
Some publishers do factor an author’s participation in book tours, publicity events, promotional appearances etc, or even their social media following and reach into their business decisions. Of course, these expectations become unfair when they fail to take into account disability, chronic illness, or mental health conditions.
Hi Dawn, unfortunately, I am not qualified to offer an opinion because we do not know the specific circumstances.
The importance of book tours varies. For us, in our little niche, book tours are a very small part of the publishing business. But they may be important in cases where the author’s personality is the brand. So if a famous comedian writes a book, people want to see them on tour and the sales will depend on that.
The thought that you work so hard for a possible $50,000 is horrible.
I will always buy books from you directly, if you self publish.
Our first advance was $5,000 per book for two books. 🙂 We want you to purchase out books in a manner most convenient to you. We appreciate all sales, and we love libraries. We only ask that you do not pirate.
This was super informative! I’m so glad you decided to make a follow-up post about the term “dropped”. I got really curious about after your last post re: Jean Kwok, but I didn’t know where to go for answers. I should have known to trust the instincts of HA… and that the rest of the Horde would have similar questions!
Small correction: the post referring to the publisher dropping a series was about This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara not Jean Kwok 🙂
Jean’s romantasy series debut, Dominion, continues with Renegade Books 🙂
This is incredibly interesting! Two questions for the industry standard for certain scenarios:
(1) For the case when the book was pulled prior to publishing anything, would the publisher still pay out the release date funds or is that not a date but a “contingent upon” payment and the author no longer gets the money?
(2) Similar question for the 6 months post book release payment. I would assume that Month 6 is an internal deadline for the publisher to evaluate whether they want to continue the series, and if they pay out, the author can rest a little easier. But if (for whatever reason) the series is pulled at Month 7, does the author keep that payment? Asking since if the payment is “per book” it looks like that payment is technically advance for book 2 which hasn’t been delivered.
I cannot answer, unfortunately, because it depends on a specific contract. Our contract would differ significantly even from a contract for another author from the same publisher.
So in general terms, usually whoever provides the reason for contract termination is on the hook for the money. So if the author breaches the contract by plagiarizing, they typically either have to pay the advance back or keep only a portion of it. The publisher may just decide that clawing the money back is too much trouble.
In cases where it is the publisher’s fault, the author keeps the advance. For example, one of our foreign publishers failed to publish our work and the contract expired. We kept the money – there wasn’t much to be honest – and sold the rights to someone else.
Interesting information about the cut-throat and ruthless publishing world. Wow.
+1
So the first self publishers that I ever encountered founded WARP Graphics. And they continued to self publish most of their work outside of a foray with Marvel, which reprinted the main story.
Sucks both for the author and the fans especially when you’re left on a cliffhanger. *sigh*
Thank you for the education. That was very interesting!
I buy ebooks (just bought the 2nd Edge book) but also get authors from Libby. I was in line to get Shalini Abeysekara’s book but Libby just announced that local library will not buy the book. Do you think that decision had anything to do with Publisher dropping the book or was it just a local budget decision? Thanks for any insight.
Libraries prioritize their budgets to buy books that are likely to be popular. The library may have decided the book is unlikely to have much demand, given the publishers decision.
It’s also possible that their distribution channel was tied to book being available through the publisher
And then you have the horde – idk about y’all but I buy my favourite books 3x (audiobook, ebook, and print) the same way I buy clothes in multiple colors if I really like them 🙈
I have to admit This Monster of Mine was not a book I’d have read but decided to give it a try after hearing about it here. I was surprised by my reluctance to put it down. It was really a surprise and I found myself reaching for the buy button on the second book which also sucked me in. Truly hope Shalini writes (and publishes) more books!
I just read Jeaniene Frost’s book A Curse of Beast and Magic and loved it. This is an author the book horde should continue to support like Ilona Andrews. Lets keep supporting authors we love. I own every book Ilona Andrews has published.
I read This Monster of Mine when it came out last year. Remember it being more fantasy, than romantasy (a plus IMO), and with a good amount of political maneuvering. Definitely recommend it.
Excellent post.
Tough business. Thank you for putting up with all the challenges. I really love your writing. I get it as soon as I learn about it. I know that once I start reading it will go really fast and then I will have to wait for the next one. So sometimes I wait to start the current book.
Thank you for the information and education. Another reason to love this blog!
I agree with the last paragraph. I find it hard to start reading a series I know will contain several books or more, but I now will buy each book as it comes out. Sometime I read it immediately or save it for later. If it’s a great series it’s always fun to reread it from the first book to the last. Even several times!
Very informative, thank you!
Of all of the newsletters, etc I receive this is the one I always stop to read while scanning my emails. Thanks for this information. So clearly presented. I have always been curious about how a book/book series makes it to my screen. I am a voracious reader and you are one of my favorites. Keep writing and I will keep reading! Every book.