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So, just as I reported, author Janet Evanovich’s agent/son Peter is shopping a new book deal after St. Martin’s Press turned down a $50 million, 4-book extension. (St. Martin’s Losing Biggest Fiction Author) I’m told the deal is being shopped to other publishers. The ask is still $50 million, or $12.5 million per book. But there is skepticism that another publisher will ante up, and Evanovich might get her best deal by not leaving St Martin’s ”family” fold where she has spent the last 15 years. Beyond the fact Evanovich has history with all but two major publishers, the biggest hurdle comes down to accounting. I’m told that such a front-loaded deal puts all the risk on the new books, and the publisher doesn’t have the benefit of writing off losers against backlist books that remain at St. Martin’s Press.
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Meanwhile, she’s been writing the same, tired book over and over and over again. Readers are becoming increasingly disgusted (check out her Amazon reader reviews on her latest — yikes) but despite their vows to never again buy another Evanovich they seem to anyway. Question is, at what point will her goodwill run out?
She should have taken the money and run. Good luck shopping your drivel to another publisher.
Good thing the agent is her son. Walkingaway from her “family”, publisher, without a backup deal is insane. She will probably go back to her publisher anyway. Either “mommy” or “sonny” did not know how to handle this.
Having personally worked with ms.(small for the obvious)Evanovich it comes as no surprise. Maybe making TV movies is on the horizon. Books and big bucks just don’t work anymore. Especially with a tired series and writer.
Are you telling us that JE has a case of unbridled greed?
After the last couple year’s of garbage that Evanovich has passed off as her Stephanie Plum series and until she can “show her stuff” with books written as well as they used to be, no publisher should offer her a penny up front. Look at St. Martin’s last deal. $40 million for four books. Drivel, drek, garbage. Cut and paste lines, recycled plots, riddled with monkeys, 14 year old boy bathroom behavior, hobbits, chicken-eating alligators, a glass bottle….Duh! Excuse me! These last books were worth $10 million each??????? After those debacles, St. Martin’s or any publisher should pay her ONLY after future books prove to be good.
An author’s name recognition and monetary worth is only as good as the books they produce. Janet Evanovich has fallen asleep at the wheel or she has hired some idiot to write for her because she is bored and tired with her characters. To readers, they are beloved characters and they get angry when a writer turns them all into cartoons and takes us for granted.
Hello! Wake up Janet. Give your public a great book and you will be rewarded. If not, YOU WON’T.
Garbage or not, her books still sell well enough to justify those numbers. She should give thought to just independently publishing a couple of her titles, she’ll make a hell of a lot more that way.
In theory, Britney Spears would make a whole lot more money if she’d write all of her songs. But … there’s a reason she doesn’t. It would damage her brand.
The quality of Evanovich’s books went downhill–along with her sales–when she left Robert Gottlieb, her agent. You can see what a crack up job her son’s doing for her in that department. Her daughter, who’s never had a job before in her LIFE, not in publishing, marketing, or anything else, is in charge of “editing” and PR. Everyone else reads mail for a living. Say that out loud. Do it. They open MAIL for a living.
Evanovich is one of those people who looks good when she pairs with the right people. Her family, as it turns out, are NOT the right people. If she did self-publish, she might make more per book, but she would also sell fewer books, not to mention give up her spot on the NYT list, which she won’t do. If her request for $50M is any indication, the books would be priced outrageously high, and the quality would be comparable of … well, have you seen her daughter’s artwork on her website? THAT is what you would be reading. If Evanovich self-published, she would be a prime example of the stigma independent authors everywhere are trying to get away from.
As for her books selling enough to justify churning out garbage…do her books sell well enough to justify those numbers? The older ones might, but the newer ones have been on a downward slide for the past 3 years. When SMP offered her $40M four years ago, they did so expecting a 40% increase in sales numbers. They lost that bet. The economy coupled with dissatisfaction in the author and her product resulted in an 8% decrease. She sold fewer copies of book 15 than she did of book 12, and burned a LOT of bridges along the way. Few people would turn down an investment that was guaranteed to appreciate, but you’d be an idiot to pay 15% more for something trending to be worth 40% less in four years.
actually, her books are not selling as well. if they were, SMP would have no problem giving her the $50 million deal. the reason they dropped her was that she DIDN’T make them any money on the last $40 million. she certainly can publish the new books on her name alone. she will make more money per book sold but not upfront. she would have to pay for editors, formatting for eBooks, and printing costs BEFORE she made any money on sales. major book stores generally don’t buy self published books in bulk or keep them in their inventory in the stores. she could sell to Amazon and B&N.com.
if she still wrote quality, she would have gotten what she wanted.
She hasn’t edited a book in 4 years. What makes you think she’d start now?
She would have to sell about 3,000,000 copies each of 4 new books just to earn back that advance. Her books don’t sell that well. Her last one (15) sold 977,178 according to Publishers Weekly. Without the backlist to draw on, I can’t imagine her getting that kind of deal.
I did some number crunching based on data that I was able to source on the Internet and I could understand where SMP would consider not negotiating with JE for a new contract.
Her hardcover sales had been dropping. I realize that the economy is a huge factor, but I think that the quality of the books also has affected her sales. Per the Amazon review boards, a significant number of the reviews said that they read library copies and did not purchase the books.
Based on a paycheck of $10 million per book, for books 13 – 16 in the series here is what I found. I was able to find data for books 12 – 15.
12 1,050,937 9.52
13 1,116,828 8.95
14 1,058,427 9.45
15 977,178 10.23 23.48 13.25
Column 1: Book
Column 2: Hardcover Unit Sales *
Column 3: JE’s $ per unit
Column 4: Estimated Gross Sales ($) per unit **
Column 5: SMP’s estimated Gross ($) per unit
* Unit sales numbers are from Publisher’s Weekly
** The Estimated Gross Sales per unit for Book 15 is a figure that I calculated by determining the average price for the hardcover using prices from walmart.com ($28.50) and amazon.com ($18.45). I chose to use Book 15 for illustration purposes. I was not able to find actual gross sales numbers for any of the books.
SMP’s gross revenue per unit has to cover the costs for editing, printing, distribution, etc. I have a feeling that SMP’s net profit is probably low for JE’s recent books. I am not sure if the net profits for JE’s books compare favorably or unfavorably to the industry.
I realize that my calculations are broad-brush strokes and based on my assumptions. However, by doing these calculations, I got a sense of why SMP could choose not to continue to publish JE.
I do so love Janets books they make me laugh, I think she is stretching herself as she now does the plum and diesel series they have got weak in the last couple of years but i am still chuckling away to myself. I do think however family should not do deals for you a 4 book deal for that amount of money isnt going to happen. I live in a city in the uk have to order her book in every time and as for the last metro book, i loved reading about barney and hooker i dont like comics and tried to get it couldnt, then on itunes it said i could download it for free yeah about 3 pages.
Janet stay with your publisher you have been there for years enjoy your sucsess as its your fans that can take it away and a lot are fed up. i am still chuckling not as much as I was but I am.
This is such a nasty article and set of comments. I believe the $50K number turned out to be wrong. But that’s beside the point. How do we know what is going on between this author and her publisher? Why so much hostility? She doesn’t claim that she’s writing great literature. Maybe she’s just doing the best that she can and garnering all this hostility because she’s so financially successful.