Literary Agent Sally Ekus represents cookbooks and food-based books.
A guest post by Sally Ekus
Every time I talk with a new author or prospective client they ask the same question: “What can I expect for an advance?” I tell them $250,000. No wait, that was a dream I had last night. In reality, though, I can’t answer.
Spoiler alert: the answer to most everything in publishing is “It depends.” In the case of cookbooks, the answer depends on platform, proposal, and concept. And no agent will tell you an amount in advance. Let’s be real, if you were applying for a job and you were told your salary could be $60,000, and then you were offered the position for $45,000,you would not be thrilled.
So to put advances in perspective, here are three abridged book deals, from low to high, to give you an idea of what range you could expect. Plus I throw in a little agent discussion to keep your expectations in check. These are not actual negotiating points for your forthcoming advance, of course, just case studies. Please keep in mind each publisher has different contract terms.
1. The $5,000 Cookbook Advance
This is a single subject book with lots of history, narrative, and full color throughout. The cookbook would be approximately 50,000 to 150,000 words with 40 photos. The number of recipes was not specified.
The deal was for a first time author who is an authority on the subject but didn’t have much of a social media or online platform. The proposal was practically flawless but I was reluctant to take on the book. Even though the content was great, she had a small platform. In the end, both the material and the willingness of the author to work really hard to promote the book won out. We found a home with a publisher who was willing to execute a superb vision, and who expressed a genuine interest in this author and topic. While the advance was low, the royalties exceeded the norm of many traditional publishers.
The first royalty check has not yet arrived, but we are optimistic.
Payout: Half on signing, half on acceptance
Royalties: Same for hardcover and paperback.
- 1–4,999 copies sold = 20 percent of net sales revenue
- 5,000–9,999 copies sold = 30 percent of net sales revenue
- 10,000-29,999 copies sold = 32.5 percent of net sales revenue
- 30,000-plus copies = 35 percent of net sales revenue
2. The $17,500 Cookbook Advance with Additional $15,000 Production Fee
This book is from a solid mid-level author with a good online presence. The author had previously published one book that sold well. There were ties to retail locations for built in, long-term sales. This follow-up book was smaller than the first, single subject, and was attached to a product . There would be 60 recipes and 30 photos. The production fee is money not paid against the advance, so it does not have to be earned back.
The proposal was good. The recipe count and format of this next book supported the advance offered. Retail outlets would provide a steady stream of sales with the hope and expectation that we would see royalties. The publisher is great at getting books into the special sales accounts we wanted.
This book continues to sell steadily with a royalty check every period ranging from $25,000-$50,000.
Payout: Half on signing, half on acceptance (same payout for production fee)
Royalties: Same for hardcover and paperback
- 1–25,000 copies sold = 18 percent of net sales revenue
- 25,001+ copies sold= 20 percent of net sales revenue
3. The $120,000 Cookbook Advance with Additional $25,000 Photo Budget
This is a cookbook from a first-time author with a very large social media platform, website, and brand. The book is an extension of the brand, not a single subject. It will feature more than 75 recipes and 60 photos.
This proposal was super solid, though it was later revised to meet the desires of a publisher. The combination of a unique concept, a stellar promotional section, a big platform, and a strong voice all led to a significant advance. The publisher had the means to support a higher offer and gave this author the promotional backing we wanted. The book is currently in production.
Payout: 1/3 signing, 1/3 acceptance of ½ the manuscript, 1/3 acceptance of full manuscript
Payout for photo budget: ½ on signing photographer agreement, ½ on acceptance
Royalties: Hardcover was 8% of list price. Paperback:
- 1-50,000 copies sold=7.5% of list price
- 50,001+ copies sold= 8.5% of list price
So there you have it. As I have demonstrated, the answer is still “It depends.” Take the time to rock out a super solid proposal (Hey, did you know Dianne does proposal coaching?!—hint hint—and no I wasn’t asked to say that.). Highlight your platform as much as possible, and pick a concept that will resonate with an engaged audience.
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Sally Ekus has been a literary agent specializing in cookbooks since 2009, when she joined The Lisa Ekus Group, her mother’s agency. She has since become a partner and has brokered more than 30 book deals. For more, see the company’s website.
so helpful to see this range, from a busy agent’s perspective. Any info like this is helpful in negotiations. I was surprised at the higher royalty rates that I thought was standard. Thank you both.
HI Cathy,
so glad you found this helpful! Thanks for reading and sharing!
Excellent and so much useful, real-time information. The publishing world is such a different place than when my cookbooks were published in the last century (80’s and early 90’s).
So glad you found it helpful. The more info we can all share the more the industry will continue to shift, grow, and thrive!
I love Sally Ekus and her talks and articles on cookbook publishing. This set of examples gives me hope and promise since I have a gajillion proposals I’d like to write 🙂 And of course, this site, Dianne, always is a fabulous go-to site with plentiful useful information!
I hope to one day say i sold a gajillion proposals! 🙂
Thank you! Great to hear from you Shefaly. I remember meeting you when you were just starting out.
Shef’s awesome, DJ!
Great information! Thank you Sally and Dianne 🙂
Thanks for reading it!
Our pleasure Cynthia.
Very interesting BUT… It would have been more realistic if she had covered some less successful stories to balance these. Though $5,000 doesn’t sound like much, it is not necessarily a given for an author without a track record or significant platform. In fact, finding a publisher at all is a challenge these days for non celebs. I’m aware of a recent case of an author with a track record who publishers said wrote a “superb” proposal, but received no offers because of concerns the book sales would be too small.
Hi Nancy,
I have represented deals below 5k too, and deals above the highest i listed. I tried to give a range since the reality is, it really all depends. Certainly this post emphasized the social media presence. Also, to address your comment about a superb proposal, i just ran into this. I have fallen in love with a proposal. It is well written and has all the right nuts and bolts. I am reluctant to take it on simply because other books on that topic haven’t performed that well. What do i do? ….
$5,000 for a single subject book from an authority on the topic with lots of history, narrative, and full color throughout vs $120,000 for a first-time author with a very large social media platform, website, and brand (I assume this means blogger with a large following). Although you make it clear that it all depends on the publishing house as well as platform, proposal, and concept, it is rather disappointing to think that bloggers are getting more money up front than an “authority” (is an authority a chef???) simply because of the built-in market. I have heard that certain/some cookbooks by bloggers, even those with very big platforms, contain so many recipes that simply do not work. As someone who is writing my first cookbook proposal, I wish we had the chance to really discuss the topic more in depth. Thank you for taking the time to write this most interesting and useful post, Sally!
Thanks for reading! Honestly I do believe that you can sell a book without a huge online presence. It is harder, sure. But having a rock solid proposal and being a great writer can secure a book deal. Only about 40% of my author list consists of bloggers. The rest are food writers, chefs, restaurateurs, first time authors, etc. I cannot emphasize enough how important a good proposal is. There are other ways to define platform. Does the person have a regular column? Do they guest post? Do they know people who are established who will help support and promote the book? …. and again, the recipes and writing should be fabulous!
This is so true, and as I tell my own clients, an author’s platform needs to reflect them and their strengths. Thanks, Sally, for underscoring so many important elements in your post.
Wow, as an author who has a lot of books under my belt and whose highest advance was $10,000, this was an eye-opener. I’ve been writing the wrong kinds of books! LOL.
One thing that really caught my eye is the heavy emphasis put on the author’s social media platform. And the fact that first-time authors can get these kinds of advances.
Thanks for the report, Sally and Dianne!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading!
Thank you Sally for this most informative post! Would love to see an example of a super solid cookbook proposal. Any chance you could write on the key aspects of that? 🙂
My first cookbook, Pacific Northwest Palate: Four Seasons of Great Cooking was picked up by Aris (then transferred to Addison Wesley as Aris folded) only days after sending out the proposal. I got a $10,000 advance and 10% royalties through 2 printings. It took a year to write (while running my cooking school). My second proposal (for a behemoth book) was accepted by Ten Speed, but because the advance was the same as the first book, I had to decline out of need to pay the mortgage. :-). So now, many years later, I’m working on a couple of new proposals and not sure what to expect. Your advice in posts and in Facebook groups is enormously helpful to so many of us. Much appreciated!
Glad you found this helpful! Dianne is a great proposal coach and can certainly point you in the right direction in terms of previous posts she has done on what makes a good proposal. Thanks!
Hi Susan, Is it possible for you to add me to this Facebook group? I’m new at this and I’m trying to soak it all in! Thanks in advanced!
Ana
Sally, thanks for your insights. Some are sobering, some are encouraging but I appreciate your realistic approach. You are truly an asset to The LIsa Ekus Group. Thanks!
Thanks Carol! I try to offer practical info. Certainly not everyone falls within these cases but it is a good jumping off point.
Hi Sally,
Thanks for highlighting and giving examples of “it depends” from an agent point of view. Many writers I know, including myself, feel like the agent/publishing business exists on a different planet.
What resonated with me most about your POV is the emphasis on platform even though a stellar proposal and fresh book idea are also critical for success.
Also, I appreciate you offering a “snapshot” range of book advances and royalties. Gives me something to chew on and shoot for even though I recently signed my first contract. Looking back, the proposal was the easy part. Negotiating the contract was what woke me at 3am every morning.
Thanks!
I am glad you found this useful. Some agencies offer contract consults as a way to offer help behind the scenes for those early am headaches. 🙂
Hi Sally, thanks for this. Can you be more specific about “small” vs. “large” platform? How many followers defines each? That would be very helpful to know. Thanks.
Sure! And thanks for asking this on the Facebook thread as well. I would say a small platform is anything below about 30k unique views/month. A large platform is in the 500k-1m and up range. Hope this helps!
A remainder to all those who get less than 30k/month—It is still possible to sell your book. Online platforms are not the make or break for a book deal. They help when you have one, and if you don’t, the most important thing to do is show what kind of platform you DO have, beyond the internet.
Hope this is helpful!
I love all this sharing of info! And though I’m sort of a veteran cookbook author, I was surprised to see those royalty rates! Your mid-level case study shows royalty payouts of 25- 50K per period, which I assume is every 6 months…that sounds crazy good!
Is this because the book is the definitive appliance-related book, as in the George Forman Grill recipe book or something? $50 — 100K of royalties is blowing my mind!
To echo another commenter, I’m writing the wrong kinds of books! Thanks!!!
Glad you found this useful!
For someone looking to put their first cookbook out (me being one of those people) this post was extremely helpful, even if the end result is still “it depends”. Thanks for sharing this.
i am so glad!
Just wanted to pop in here and say I’m incredibly grateful for the candid talk about realistic contracts with actual numbers attached to various scenarios. It’s incredibly helpful, from the photographer’s point of view, too. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for reading!
I must be the only European reading this surely because these numbers are completely alien to me. I think and although very helpful to know how the publishing world works in the US, it is very different from Europe. In Europe the UK is even very different from other European countries.
In Belgium, which is where I am from, we don’t even use agents. Here we go to the publisher straight away. Which might also be the reason that far more non-celebs are publishing books here, and pay is nothing near to what you describe.
A book advance is just something they laugh about here, you get your royalties after the book sells and that’s it. The end.
Social media platforms are also much much smaller here. My platform is huge in Belgium, but compared to the US it is small. So the ‘it depends’ depends on more things than just sales, proposals, etc etc. The publishing world is just very very different in other countries. I am working with my Belgian publisher and Australian publisher at the same time to get my book out in my native language and English. The two publishers couldn’t be more different in every possible way.
Because we don’t use agents here, I wonder if where you are books are becoming for the privileged only, as I can imagine it isn’t cheap to hire an agent. I wouldn’t be able to afford one that’s for sure. Agents might make the life of publishers more easy, but what about authors? Thank you for your story, it was very interesting to read. Wish I was born in the US now, so I wouldn’t have lost my entire savings to a book, and instead filled my pocket! 🙂
Hi Regula,
Thank you so much for writing such a thoughtful and relevant question/comment. First of all, I agree with you that the international publishing scene is quite different from the US. While I would love nothing more than to represent a global list, I mainly stick to representing US authors before unfortunately US publishers (well, the majority of them) are focused on selling books to the US consumer. I do have a handful of authors who live abroad but the key to working with them is that they have a presence here in the states–both in their readership and in that they travel here a few times a year.
Additionally I want to make sure it is clear that an agent is not “hired” in the sense that you do not pay an agent up front for them to rep you. An agent works on commission. 15% in fact which is the industry standard. No agent should be charging a fee. The commission is for the life of the project so that is the advance and the royalties. I might work on a proposal for a month before I sell it, or I might work on it for a year. I only get paid for my work if/when the project sells.
Also, there are some houses here in the states that don’t pay advances. This is less common and of course not as attractive to an author (or agent) because they have to put in the work and hope the book sells. At least with an advance you know that you have some guaranteed money.
I could write a whole separate post on the difference between the US and international cookbook market. For example, “good” sales in certain countries might be 3,000 copies where as here in the states we would want to see a min of 20,000 in the first year. Again, it all depends.
Thank you for your comment. I hope I addressed all the info you are asking about. If you have more questions feel free to leave them here and we can keep the dialogue going. Best of luck with both your publishers. It sounds exciting to me to work with two houses at one time! Kudos to you!
I would like to weigh in on the value of an agent from an author’s standpoint. If I had to do it in one word, that word would be “invaluable.” A great agent is both your advocate and your buffer, making it possible for you to give the maximum energy to creating the workout. Prior to submitting a proposal, a great agent will vet the concept and counsel you as to its marketability. If it needs to be tailored, the agent can offer advice based on what is selling and what she reasonably knows will sell and work with you to create a proposal that satisfies your creative instincts but can also find a home with a publisher. A great agent considers who you are and what you want to achieve with your work/how you work and of the vast array of possible publishers, will begin with the ones most compatible to your goals and intentions. I’ve had two great agents (7 cookbooks/ten books) and they each were supremely skilled at interpreting rejections. Really. That’s huge. An author needs to know why a book may be turned down by a specific publisher, but it’s almost impossible to hear in a direct rejection. Both of my agents were able to ask good follow-up questions and interpret the answers for me, to ask if I wanted or felt I needed to change anything in response to the turn downs, and then support my decisions as we moved forward. Lisa Ekus, my agent for my last two books, found radically different homes for these two radically different projects, and each has been a perfect fit. I would not have had the stamina nor wisdom to find either. A great agent is worth her weight in gold, but, as Sally notes, won’t make a dime if you don’t.
Hi Sally,
thanks for your answers to my post, it really is very interesting.
It is very exciting to work with two houses, but it also brings with it a lot of stress! I won’t go into it but I have had many sleepless nights which maybe might have been avoided if I had an agent. I will however try and contact an agent for my next book and see how it goes.
thanks!
Thanks for this article Sally, super helpful and interesting. But even more, the well-thought-out replies in the comment section are also helpful and interesting — almost like a second article, with even more and expanded information. This is a great resource, and I hope the dialogue continues.
so glad you found this insightful A.J.! I am really passionate about sharing information so the industry can thrive.
That’s fantastic Sally! Articles like this, and the good dialogue they kick off, definitely help. I’ll be sure to watch for more from you, too!
Sally is very clear that the world of advances/contracts for cookbooks is wildly variable and I can attest. None of the 7 cookbook deals I’ve had in my lifetime have specifically resembled those she cites, although all have had elements of each of them. The change in book publishing over the time I’ve been involved (my first book was printed in 1990–still in print, too, and the only one I’ve ever earned royalties from) has been dramatic. Platform matters tremendously now if you are looking to make money, but there are other reasons to devote your time, sanity and waistline to writing about food. My general counsel to folks who ask is to say that if those other reasons feel compelling, pursue it! It can be fun and offer surprising gifts. But if they aren’t, enjoy your supper and think about another form of art and expression.
Thanks for your insight Sally. One quick question. It seems today that if you don’t already have a huge platform its hard to sign an agent or publisher. Any additional insight you can provide?
This was both tough and interesting to read, and I debated about commenting. Tough, as I spent a year and a lot of money writing a proposal. Writing it was hard, but I was proud of it and excited about the book. I know from DJ’s other posts that finding an agent can be hard, especially if your are not a celeb or have a zillion people following you or seem to have hit the latest fad. I did find an agent (who commented here actually) that was wonderful. If I get to fulfill my dream of writing a book, I would still love to work with her. The low advances noted were a bit surprising. For advances so low, you could only hope to earn more with royalties to make it worth the effort. I understand that one should not expect to make much money on a book but $5k-$17k is not much. In the end, although my traffic numbers would be considered above medium by Sally’s range, feedback was it had to be at least 100k to be considered for a publisher. That was disheartening. I stepped back to refresh my site, rebrand, and think hard about my message and value, in hopes of building traffic to the point where I have enough of a platform to be in the game. If I get to write the book I have in me, it will be alone, not with a collaborator (that was part of the problem). There is still a tiny bit of a sting in my heart, but I have to remind myself that I learned much in the process and that somehow it will not be wasted. Thanks for sharing your insight Sally.
Hi Sally, great to hear from you. It sounds like you’re doing everything you can to rebrand and increase your visibility, which is great.
Now you just have to find the book that only you can write. Or maybe a publisher will find your blog and offer you a book. That happens to lots of bloggers. I just talked with someone who got a $1k advance and the publisher paid for the photography. So yes, the advance can be even lower than mentioned here.
I’m looking for an agent, and have self published two cookbooks now. The first one is doing quite well, I think. It’s more of a memoir cookbook slanted towards Danes and other’s who like Danish food. It chronicles my childhood somewhat, alongside the food I learned to make and is a showcase for more traditional Danish dishes. I’m currently working on an expanded version, adding many more recipes. I use social media to promote but would love to have an agent as well, How does a self published author do that? Thanks in advance.
An agent could be interested if you have sold many thousands of copies of your self-published cookbooks. Maybe 5-10,000. Re finding an agent, the best way it to look in the Acknowlegements section of cookbooks to see names of agents.
Hi Dianne! This blog post is so helpful. A friend just got approached by a fairly established cookbook publisher to write a cookbook, but they are offering only $5,000 and no royalties. How common is this for zero royalties to be offered?? Is this a typical deal for a first-time writer?
Thank you, Lulu. Sometimes writers are offered jobs that are considered work-for-hire, which is typically when the publisher has the cookbook idea and needs someone to write it. In that case they are not given royalties. Being a first-time writer is not relevant.
So if it’s not a work-for-hire but a standard cookbook, I’d say it’s not a good deal. On the other hand, most authors never earn out their advance, and therefore never see any royalties.
I hope this helps!
I see, thank you for the insight! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!!