[Dilbert San Diego]

Good question.

I have thought that since the payments are called an “advance”, that these are payments to be netted against the actual sales of the books, and will be netted against whatever royalties are due to the author, when they settle up accounts when actual sales roll in.

And, in the case of a book that doesn’t sell, conceivably the author could owe money back to the publisher, since it was an “advance”, not an actual specified contractual amount of an owed payment to the author.

Are these payments really advances; does an author of a dud like this Cuomo book get to keep the money paid as an advance?

[sphinx]

There should be an absolute prohibition of book advances to anyone holding public office or who has announced a run. By all means, let them write books. I applaud that if they actually have anything to say, which many of them don't. But payments should be strictly limited to the author's cut on actual book sales. This, by the way, would take many of the ghostwriters out of the game as well. If a pol had to pay $20,000 or whatever out of his own pocket for a ghostwriter of a book that will have virtually no sales, the jig will be up.

It's also necessary to police bulk sales to political groups that are also laundered bribes.