Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins: book advances revealed

Industry gossip about writer pay is in overdrive and some of the advances currently being offered boggle the mind.

Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Australian books are having a moment. Everyone knows that. Liane Moriarty, Jane Harper, Chris Hammer, Michael Robotham, Candice Fox - they’re all absolutely killing it. Which is very good news for them, but also for everyone else.

Let me explain: industry gossip about writer pay is in overdrive. Some of the advances currently being offered to what might be considered “the middle order” - writers who aren’t yet household names - boggle the mind.

Now, there is a caveat: some of the people who will publish books later this year have a special story to tell: Grace Tame will be paid around $450,000 for her book. Brittany Higgins will get around $250,000, and so on.

“But even down the chain, with people who aren’t big names, there are insane amounts being paid,” says one industry insider. “There is such huge demand for content. Everyone is trying to find the next Trent Dalton, to sell half a million copies, and turn into a Netflix series.”

What is an “insane amount” in book world?

Well, the chatter says a local crime writer recently signed for $400,000 for two as yet unpublished, indeed unwritten books. That is going to be painful for an unpublished, debut writer to read. Many of them still have to settle for no advance. It’s a massive improvement on the typical market. The “big” publishing houses - Hachette, etc - tend to start the bidding for a reasonably well-known journalist or podcast host at $25,000. If there’s no counter offer, that’s what they get. A bigger name might be able to get between $40,000-$80,000. But if you’ve got an agent, it might be worth going to auction right now.

Screen rights are also booming. Recent deals include Tim Ayliffe signing with a local production house; Gabriel Bergmoser catching Hollywood’s eye; Brigid Delaney’s book Wellmania being made into a Netflix series starring Australian comedian Celeste Barber; and BenjaminStevenson’s brand new novel, Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, being picked up after what was described as a “heated” Hollywood auction.

In short, it seems we have more than five Australian writers currently making a good living. That’s welcome news.

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Spectacular news this week, with two octogenarians providing precisely the shots of adrenaline we all need.

First, Bob Dylan has announced his first book since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. The Philosophy Of Modern Song (Simon &Schuster) will comprise 60 essays on songwriting and 150 illustrations. Dylan is 80, he’s touring, and he’s recently entered the crypto market on the Snowcraft plaform. As one does.

Next, Cormac McCarthy, 88, will publish two news books this summer. The Passenger and Stella Maris (both Knopf in the US) will be released within a month of each other, and are loosely tied. McCarthy, the greatest of all American writers yet to win the Nobel, hasn’t published a novel since The Road.

Oh to be 80, with all that energy.

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In case you missed it: for the first time in at least 10 years, and probably ever, books by women are more likely to be reviewed in Australia than books by men. The breakthrough was announced just ahead of International Women’s Day this week, by the people behind the Stella Count.

The count came about after a group of female writers, editors and publishers discovered in 2011 that The Weekend Australian overwhelmingly reviewed books by men. The group also created the Stella Prize, since female writers couldn’t seem to get on local prize lists, either.

The disrespect shown to women never made any sense for women are the backbone of the book industry in Australia. Without them, the whole thing collapses. They write bestsellers; they buy most of the books; they turn up at literary festivals; they work in demanding roles in publishing; they borrow, recommend, and gift. They are politically-engaged, and passionate; community-minded, and highly literate. It’s tremendous to see them getting the attention they deserve.

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Shane Warne in the Books pages? Yes, it might seem odd, but bear with me. It was my bad luck a few years back to have a book out, just as he had a book out, so we were touring shops at the same time. I kept running into these life-size cut-outs of him.

He made even cardboard charismatic.

Now he’s gone, and it has torn a hole in the fabric of our nation, not least because he was such a welcome counterbalance to all the grim censoriousness in our midst.

Shane Warne made even cardboard charismatic

A friend said: “There was nobody like him, they’ve all been cancelled. He was not cancellable.” He was not.

It seemed this week like everyone had a story. Here’s mine: I remember taking my young son to see Warne at the SCG, shortly before he retired. One day, I figured, it will be like saying: I saw Bradman bat.

I saw Warnie bowl.

Because he was a legend, but not only with the ball. A few years later, I saw him in the aftermath of the Black Saturday fires. He turned up with a load of cricket memorabilia, and stumps. Popped the boot. Organised a quick game on the oval, gathering up the local kids – the traumatised, burnt-out kids – gently coaching and cheering them on.

He was a superb spin bowler. An even better man. Rest in peace, you gorgeous creature.

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What will you find in today’s pages? Among other things, an extract from Brenda Niall’s memoir, My Accidental Career. Niall, 91, is one of Australia’s foremost biographers, having won awards for her portrait of the Durack sisters.

We also have a review of Julianne Schultz’s important new book, The Idea Of Australia; we have a book by a Canberra writer, who, post the birth of her baby, developed a bizarre fixation on Benedict Cumberbatch; there’s a smart debut by a Western Sydney writer, we examine some city planning, some stargazing, some poetry; and Cheryl Akle looks at a mighty collection by well-known Australians who had a tough time at school, edited by Fiona Scott-Norman. Enjoy.