So, for those of you who have already read my series on author royalties, I have exciting news for you! If you haven’t yet read my four part blog series that opens up and unwraps the secrets behind how authors get paid for their novels, then check it out first, and then come back.

I received confirmation of my first advance today.

It is difficult to take in! My wonderful publishers asked me a week ago to consider writing a special one off Christmas novella for them – which I obviously said yes to. Christmas is such a marvellous time of year, for family, friends, and great new reads. I would love to have people curl up under a rug this Christmas 2015 and read a story which really makes them smile, and I am already really exciting about writing it.

However, as I have already written two novels and a novella for my publishers, I thought that now was the time that I should ask for an advance. For those that are not aware, an advance is a sum of money that a publisher pays an author for a future work. This money can be paid either as soon as they agree that a particular work will be written, or on delivery of the manuscript. Then when copies of the book start to sell, the royalties are deducted from the advance.

My advance for this novella is £50, which means that if my novella sells for £1.99 (which I think it will), I will have to sell 126 before I ‘earn out’, or bring in enough to cover the £50 advance. After that, I start to get paid royalties again.

Admittedly, £50 is not a huge amount of money – but to me, it is an absolute gold mine. Not only will that £50 be very handy, but it shows that my publishers have faith in me that I will sell at least 126 copies of my book, if not more. That may not seem like very much, but two years ago I was completely unpublished.

Some authors who are well-known with a huge fan base can expect to receive advances closer to £3000, and while I definitely want to get there someday, today is one step towards that, and a very definite step at that.

I look forward to sharing my experiences writing this Christmas novella, and I hope that you will all want to read it when it comes out Christmas 2015! But if you can’t wait that long, and you just have to have some Emily Murdoch novels in your life, fear not. You can buy Conquests: Hearts Rule Kingdoms: 1, Love Letters: 2 (Conquests), and Captives: Hearts Rule Kingdoms: 3 (Conquests) – or get all three for a cheaper price if you buy Conquered Hearts: The Collection.