bestselling authors?

Question

i have a few questions regarding their work. there are currently, for instance, 3,2 million copies in print of a novel (by Kim Edwards); how will the author get paid then; say 7-12 % of the 3.2 million copies? is that how it works.

and if her book sells another million in europe for ex, when does the author get to be paid for that; in the same year or?

one more thing; there have been cases where the publishing house didn't want to publish more than a certain amount of copies and what the author did - Paulo Coelho - for ex, was he looked for another publishing house. what does it really depend on; the amount of copies published, how does the publisher decide to go about it. thanx a lot.

Answer 1

Best selling authors have specially negotiated contracts, often with multi-million dollar [for US authors] advances. They generally don't disclose how their contracts treat payments. So, there isn't a simple answer to your question.

For some general ideas how authors get paid, check with the Writer's Digest, the bible of the publishing industry. It should be available in any decent sized public library in the USA.