Hi folks,
I have the opportunity to revise a guidebook. Payment is in royalties from book sales, with an advance payment on the royalties upfront. The advance is small and the book is for a fairly well known guidebook company, so it is nearly certain that the book will sell out the advance.
There's two routes open to me: I can take a big advance payment or a small advance payment. With the bigger advance, it will likely be a few extra years before I start getting checks in the mail from royalties.
The smaller advance appeared better to me at first because I like the idea that of getting more money in the mail while I'm no longer working on the project. However, it will be the same amount of money overall and the quicker I get the money the quicker I can do something to with it to earn more money, (or at least put it in a savings account) and the more it can earn for me over the long run.
Does that make sense? So what would you do, fellow stachers? Money upfront, or money spread out over time? Does it even matter? Is there something I'm missing? Also, it is possible but highly unlikely that the book won't sell out the advance, so that should be a consideration.
I realize this is a fairly specific issue, but I think there are other situations where the same question applies: money now versus money later. Thanks for the help.