Break out the champagne – today I got a royalty cheque. It was for my 1996 book Before The Backbone: Views on the Origin of the Vertebrates, which still, incredibly, generates a few sales (and citations).
On receipt of this envelope I advised Mrs Gee to put down that racing form and start combing the web for Grade-II listed Georgian rectories with several acres of chicken-friendly farmland.
And then I opened the envelope.
With receipts for sales going back two years (converted unfavourably into sterling from euros and US dollars), and a one-off payment for a Japanese translation that happened so many years ago that I’ve forgotten exactly when, the cheque came to … wait for it … wait for it … the life-changing amount of
£100.72
which after tax will be just over £60. It’ll pay for a nice dinner for two, which is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. But evidence enough that writing books for a living is not only bloody hard work, but requires a generous measure of luck.
Now, where did I put that lottery ticket?
Think yourself lucky it was in three figures, Henry – I quite often get the ‘we don’t pay out less than £25, so nothing for you my lad’ statements…
Oh dear, I was going to write “don’t tell Brian” but I see he’s already read your post. (Visit the Mac Science authors’ forum).
My payments for book reviews in the US newspapers are, literally, not worth the paper they are written on, by the time the meagre amount has been converted from dollars to pounds and the bank has taken its hefty cut. These US corporations have not heard of, and hence have no mechanism for, crediting one’s credit card account, Paypal, or Amazon vouchers, all currency-neutral and (to me) far more acceptable.