WLP Professor Probes Graphic Novel Publishing Advances at Comic-Con

The advances that authors receive to write books are often cloaked in secrecy. John Rodzvilla wanted to see more transparency on the topic, and began a research project.

The Writing, Literature & Publishing assistant professor presented his paper, “Who Gets Seen? Who Gets Paid?: Graphic Novels and the #publishingpaidme Hashtag,” on a comics business panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24. His paper is part of a larger research project about authors and the publishing industry.

An advance is money paid to an author by a publisher before the book is published, and is deducted from future royalty earnings.

U.S. author L.L. McKinney created the hashtag in 2020, and it quickly went viral. A Google document was created and writers started sharing information about advances, and within six days, there were more than 2,500 books listed.

“No one knows what advances are for authors. When the [#publishingpaidme] hashtag came out in 2020, it gave insight into the actual processes [of authors’ negotiations with publishing houses],” said Rodzvilla. “I was able to see comparisons of advances of male versus female, African-American to Asian-American and white. The hashtag provided insight into something that remains hidden.”

Rodzvilla continues to analyze the research, particularly the graphic novel element, but he said that African-American and Asian-American authors who responded are actually being paid really well.

“But that’s because the Asian-American and African-American [authors] are only being picked up by major publishing houses like Penguin Random House. They’re not getting published by the smaller presses [at the same rates as white men],” said Rodzvilla. “They’re getting greater advances, but not as many of them. … [W]hen you look deeper, all the diversity disappears once you go below the major presses.”

For example, Penguin Random House publishes 15,000 print books and 70,000 digital books each year. Rodzvilla said micro presses and smaller presses, which publish a greater percentage of white male authors, may publish only a few, or up to 100 books per year.

He added that information on advances has become less transparent since the hashtag created an organic discussion, and that info provided by publishers in press releases or trade media outlets have moved away from including advance amounts.

“There’s no way to determine a good advance from an author’s perspective or from a publisher’s perspective,” said Rodzvilla. “An advance to an author allows you to work solely on the book as long as you need, and provides a livable wage. From the publisher’s perspective, it’s how many books they will sell for the first two years.”

Rodzvilla was grateful for the hashtag #publishingpaidme on Twitter. He pulled mentions and posts from the hashtag, but said the hashtag died out organically in 2022, before Twitter changed to X.

“Hashtags have lifespans. I think that everyone who would say something, said something,” said Rodzvilla.

He added that an author could threaten their relationship with a publisher by publicly stating their advance.

Rodzvilla said before attending and participating in the Comic-Con panel that he hoped it would give him a fresh perspective on the publishing industry. Since 2020, the business has changed greatly, in a huge part due to COVID and artificial intelligence, and there’s been a greater focus on diversity in pop culture.

“It’s going and seeing how everything changed and bringing that into the classroom,” said Rodzvilla. “It’ll help me keep the classroom material I give to students fresh and current.”

This was Rodzvilla’s fourth time at Comic-Con, and he’s happy that Comic-Con is holding conversations about diversity.

“I’m happy to see this panel and look at the rest of the Comics Arts events with a lot more discussions with creators of color and LGBTQ,” said Rodzvilla. “I’m looking forward to this equity discussion of the industry and not just focus on what Marvel, DC, Universal, and their ilk are doing.”