Money a publisher pays you upfront before your book is published, drawn against the royalties your book will eventually earn from sales.
An advance is a payment from your publisher that you receive before your book hits shelves, typically split into installments (on signing, on delivery of the manuscript, on publication). It is not free money. It is a loan against your future royalties. You do not start earning additional royalty checks until your book has sold enough copies for the royalties to exceed the advance. If your book never earns that much, you still keep the advance, but you will not see another cent from sales.
Your advance is often the only guaranteed money you will see from a traditionally published book, since many books never earn out. Understanding how advances work helps you budget realistically, negotiate smarter, and avoid the common trap of assuming a big advance means a big payday down the road. It also shapes how publishers invest in marketing your book, since they want to recoup what they paid you.
Tartt reportedly received a $3.5 million advance, justified by the massive success of The Secret History and years of anticipation for her next novel.
Kuang's reported seven-figure deal for Babel showed how a strong track record from The Poppy War trilogy translates into larger advances.
Rooney's debut advance was modest by bestseller standards, but the book's breakout success meant her follow-up deals were dramatically larger.
A massive advance raises the bar your book must clear to earn out. If it does not, your next deal may come with a smaller advance or not come at all. Sometimes a modest advance with strong royalty rates and marketing support is the smarter play.
Advances are almost always paid in installments spread across months or years: a portion on signing, another on manuscript delivery, another on publication. Budget accordingly.
Your royalties go toward paying back the advance first. You only receive additional royalty payments after you have earned out. Until then, every sale is the publisher recouping its investment.
Look up five recent book deals in your genre on Publishers Marketplace or publishing news sites. Note the deal categories (nice deal, very nice deal, major deal, significant deal) and research what dollar ranges those correspond to. Calculate what each advance would look like after a 15% agent commission and split across three installments. This exercise grounds your expectations in real numbers.