Get paid to write your novel

May 31, 2018 12:28 AM

De Montfort Literature will pay up to ten selected writers a salary of £24,000 while they write their novel, with the profits then split. The business will provide mentoring and editorial support and is funded by De Montfort Capital, Jonathan De Montfort’s venture capital outfit. Nothing to do with De Montfort University.
posted by Segundus (24 comments total)

If it seems too good to be true...
posted by Segundus at 12:29 AM on May 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

A more advanced advance, then.
posted by solarion at 12:49 AM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Selection criteria including "a process of psychometric testing he has devised", huh?

Also, "When their book is published, they’ll receive a share of the profits" does not to me read like a promise to split anything equitably.
posted by spielzebub at 1:04 AM on May 31, 2018 [13 favorites]

My rule-of-thumb regarding grants or stipends is that if the one-sentence summary sounds like the set-up of a Stephen King short story, I stay the fuck away.
posted by Kattullus at 2:18 AM on May 31, 2018 [26 favorites]

For the love of God, Montresor
posted by chavenet at 2:58 AM on May 31, 2018 [13 favorites]

I’m tempted to apply because it sounds like the kind of wacky process that could be quite entertaining if you don’t actually give a shit.
posted by Segundus at 3:11 AM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

I hope one of them writes a communist manifesto.
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:19 AM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

Is that really enough money to be financially secure on? And enough to sign a non compete for two years?
posted by SpaceWarp13 at 4:17 AM on May 31, 2018

It is presumably what they have worked out with their models to be the least amount of money to nonetheless convince people given the contract conditions.
posted by solarion at 4:20 AM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

> solarion:
"It is presumably what they have worked out with their models to be the least amount of money to nonetheless convince people given the contract conditions."

Yeah, because venture capitalists stay in business by being wonderful, charitable pillars of the community. This sounds like an upscale version of the James Frey/James Patterson bookmills.
posted by Samizdata at 4:33 AM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

UK average salary was £27,600 in 2015. Average earnings for professional writers were £12,500 in 2016. So fairly attractive to a lot of qualified people.

According to my reading, you don’t get any of the profits until your salary and all marketing expenses (alarm klaxon sounds) have been repaid, so Solarion is right that the effect is basically like an early advance. But for an unpublished author an advance of £24,000 or more before the writing has even started doesn’t look bad.

My own theory is that this is mainly camouflage for De Montfort paying for the publication of his own crap novel.
posted by Segundus at 5:11 AM on May 31, 2018 [6 favorites]

Is that really enough money to be financially secure on?

Depends how you define financially secure, I guess? It's pretty close to the UK median income, but lower than the £27k that's median for full-time employees (wiki). Correcting for tax, its more than I lived a studenty-but-comfortable life on in London during my PhD studies.
posted by metaBugs at 5:23 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's more (by a handful of quid) than the median household income as of 2014 (so, inflation, but there's also been a degree of wage stagnation).

What's missing is the contract period - do they want to pay you two grand a month for two months to do your book? Or do you get two years? Because that's the difference between being given a four grand advance, and being given a forty-eight grand advance. That's huge. And as mentioned above, that salary is likely the only money you'll see - only profits after your salary expenses and nebulously-defined marketing costs are covered will be split. And it isn't clear what kind of split, either.

So, assuming a reasonable contract length (say, half a year or more) this is absolutely worthwhile for an author who doesn't expect to make more than the advance (contract length determines the exact value) but not otherwise. It's absolutely worthwhile for DML if they expect the book to be a huge hit that makes a lot of money (since they have to cover your salary, but can effectively contrive to pocket at least most of the rest) but not otherwise.
posted by Dysk at 6:12 AM on May 31, 2018

If you're chosen you can follow in the footsteps of published authors like Jonathan De Montfort, whose debut novel Turner - published by De Montfort Literature - "is a dark, layered, mildly supernatural thriller about what it means to be human, pure love and the sacrifices people make for those things."

Photo shoot not guaranteed.
posted by googly at 7:02 AM on May 31, 2018

This is so sketchy it should be doing caricatures down by the pier.

The FAQ inspires less confidence than the rest of the site, not more. Backed by a hedge fund, for crying out loud...
posted by Fish Sauce at 7:30 AM on May 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

If it works, it sounds like it turns writing from a lottery into steady employment. I can see how that could be an attractive tradeoff for many people.
posted by clawsoon at 8:41 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

If a writer leaves DML, they will not be able to write novels for any other publisher for two years.

Found the first catch.

Authors will receive fifty per cent after all costs are taken into account i.e. salary, production costs and marketing.

And the second.
posted by jeather at 9:00 AM on May 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

whose debut novel Turner - published by De Montfort Literature - "is a dark, layered, mildly supernatural thriller about what it means to be human, pure love and the sacrifices people make for those things."

Loving how "dark, layered, mildly supernatural" sounds like it could be either a delicious pastry or a scented candle.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:04 AM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

There's something not quite right about the phrase "is also a keen writer" appearing in an author's biography.
posted by featherboa at 10:08 AM on May 31, 2018 [7 favorites]

I could maybe-sorta-kinda think, yeah, okay, that's a fair trade off. But this?

Who owns the copyright to the ideas?

Copyright is shared between DML and the author. However, DML retains the management rights. This means that writers have a right to be paid at the contracted rate if their book is published. They also have the option to buy DML out from their ideas, if they decide to leave the company.
DML retains the right to have a ghost writer take ideas to novel format in an author’s absentia, for example, if they decide they want an extended holiday or to leave the firm and not buy out their ideas (they will still be paid at the contracted rate in either case).

No, thank you.
posted by slipthought at 11:54 AM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

if they decide they want an extended holiday or to leave the firm

I feel like this needs to be said with the right intonations for maximum effect: "... if they decide they want an extended holiday or to leave the firm ..."
posted by octobersurprise at 11:58 AM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

My magnum opus: Pounded in the Ass by Venture Capitalists
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:15 PM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Honestly, that's a heck of a lot more money than most book published these days will make. The idea of writing "Spec" fiction, where the publisher holds the rights, is not a new one. And it's a model that really works for some authors and publishers.
posted by smoke at 5:48 PM on May 31, 2018

I guess I'm saying these terms as not as unusual (or exploitative) as people think. They are not standard, but they are close to a standard, for this kind of publishing contract.
posted by smoke at 5:49 PM on May 31, 2018