A subscription to Publisher’s Marketplace is a great way to stay up to date on what’s happening in the world of publishing, including the latest news of book deals - what publishers are paying as advances for specific books.

I love the way Publisher’s Marketplace classifies their deal information. Here’s the key they use:

“nice deal” $1 - $49,000

“very nice deal” $50,000 - $99,000

“good deal” $100,000 - $250,000

“significant deal” $251,000 - $499,000

“major deal” $500,000 and up

In this week’s Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, which has just gone out to subscribers, I included the article “Writing Books As A Dream Home Business”. You can see why that’s so by the key above if you’re lucky enough to get a “significant deal” or a “major deal”.

(If you missed this week’s issue I’ll be putting it online at the ezine’s archives site in the next day or two.) The article’s also online for members of my book writer’s site.

Many book publishing agreements are structured as multi-book deals, as you can see from this deal mentioned in Publisher’s Lunch:

Screenwriter Andrew Klavan’s HOMELANDERS, pitched as Twenty Four meets The Bourne Identity; homeless, broke, and unable to find his parents, a teenager has to outrun both terrorists and the law with only a few days to stop the murder of the Secretary of State in a race against time that brings him face-to-face with a master assassin, to Amanda Bostic at Thomas Nelson, in a four-book deal, by Alyssa Eisner Henkin and Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group (NA).

This means not only that you should be thinking of your novel as potentially the start of a series, but also that you need to get writing and keep writing. You may find that when your first book sells, the publisher is interested in giving you a multi-book deal; so it’s essential that you have at least an outline or a couple of chapters of your next book to offer.

You want to write a book. Good for you! Writing a book is fun, and it can be a very profitable enterprise, which earns you royalty checks every six months for years to come.

However, before you start tapping your keyboard, you’re wondering WHAT you should write? Nonfiction or novels - that is, truth, or lies?

It’s completely up to you.

Generally speaking, nonfiction sells better, and is easier to write, because most people know a lot about something, or are interested enough in something that they can research it and write a book about it.

But if you want to write novels, you’re in good company.

In 2006, over 79,000 people took part in NaNoWriMo, the novel writing marathon, and sixteen NaNoWriMo novelists have had their NaNo-novels published, including Sarah Gruen, author of New York Times #1 Best Seller, Water for Elephants.

So to repeat: whether you write nonfiction or fiction is up to you - and you can write both, if that’s your choice, as it is for many writers.

Writing Freelance Star: Write a Book helps you to write both nonfiction and novels. Write your way to riches today.

If you’re sick of your day job, writing books offers the perfect escape. You can write anywhere.

The start-up costs, compared to other home businesses, are zero, as I wrote to a reader last week who asked: “How much does it cost to have a book published?”

He was a little confused: you don’t pay anyone. Publishers pay you to publish your book.

Yes, there’s a process called Print On Demand (POD) if you choose to self-publish, but in book publishing the publisher pays the writer an advance on royalties.

Publishers pay you, often before you write a book

Publishers pay you for the rights to publish your book. This initial payment, which is usually made before the book is written in the case of nonfiction, is called an advance, because it’s an advance on the royalties you’re paid.

You’re paid royalties, because you don’t sell your book, you’re licensing the rights to publish the book. The copyright remains with you, and transfers to your heirs on your demise.

So the publisher licenses the rights for a period of time which is described in your book publishing contract. If the publisher stops publishing the book - that is, if the book goes out of print and is no longer available in book stores - the rights transfer back to you.

Want the perfect home business? Write a book.