Oliver Bateman Does the WorkVerified account

People are talking publishing advances and royalties right now, and let me tell you, I've had an agent for a few years and have seen 0 dollars from it. I do believe they sold books by some people I recommended, though. That's the work and the tea.

One thing I've discovered is that rich kids who write for a "living" frequently inflate their earnings upward, when in fact many would write for exposure or a starvation wage. But when my book of essays got shopped, we were talking a 10-15k advance, best case

I gave up on that "business" to sell writing to outlets that either pay well or that I like working with. 10 Ringer essays will earn out that advance and then some; they're great. And for years I shared my rates whenever I published somewhere, even wrote abt it for CJR

A lot of the business, as near as I can tell from meetings and so on, is premised on finding books that are essentially hot takes, ideally by an author with a little juice coming off a viral take or podcast (in your proposal you discuss your "reach" and the "blurbs" you can get)