A meal worth waiting 8 years for.

Payday has arrived!

For years now, I’ve been watching one of my picture books (bought by the publisher in 2014 and published in 2016) sell a few copies here and a few copies there as I wondered whether it would ever earn out.

“Earning out,” for those of you not in publishing, means that the royalties a book’s author has earned from copies sold has finally equaled the amount of money that the author received in advance from the publisher. Once a book has earned out — IF a book earns out — the author begins receiving royalty payments for the first time since the final installment of the advance.

For this book, I received part of the advance in December 2014, part in January 2015, and the last of it in June 2016. And for the past eight years, I’ve received… nothing.

Well, patience has been rewarded. According to the royalty statement posted by the publisher a few days ago, the book in question has at last earned out!

I’ll soon receive a check for $13.76, but I’ve already celebrated with breakfast at my favorite restaurant. My entree was $10.75, and the coffee was $3.

Maybe I’ll frame the remaining penny as a reminder — like I need one — that being an author means playing the long game.