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REALLY PERSONAL QUESTIONS
How much money do your books make? It depends. The Miss Bindergarten books have made enough to support me and my wife without income from other sources. But that will last only if they continue to sell. None of my other books have done that, although the Porcupine books and Who is Coming to Our House? have done well.
What is well? Most picture books split an advance of about $10,000 against what they earn in royalties. If the books don't sell, or earn royalties, you usually get to keep that advance. Most royalties pay 10% per book split between picture book authors and illustrators; on a $15 book, an author would get .75 cents per book. That is not enough to buy groceries and pay the rent for a year in the United States. I feel a book is successful if it earns back its advance and continues to earn income. However, if publishers believe a book will do extremely well, and if you have a track record, that is, if your other books have sold a lot of copies, they can give advances as high as $30,000 per book. And if you are really prominent, they can give advances in the millions, but that is not normally true of most writers. The average writer makes about $5,000 a year.
When is your birthday and where were you born? Would you believe I'm 203 years old? I was born in Hollidays Cove, West Virginia. It's near the Ohio River in the state's northern panhandle. It's now incorporated into Weirton, an industrial town to the east. I had four sisters. My father worked in the Coke Plant of Weirton Steel, and my mother stayed home and cared for us. We kids went around in bare feet and did things our parents never approved of, or even knew about. Like walking a trestle across King's Creek and following railroad tracks that went all the way down to Catfish Pond. I fished there under the railroad bridge that spanned the Ohio, not with my sisters, but with Joey Horvath, my boyhood friend. These things really influenced my writing, especially Crossing the Trestle and The Star Rocker.
Do you have a wife? Yes. In 2004, we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary! My wife is not a writer, but she is an ardent reader. She is musical, intelligent, and very beautiful, everyone says, and I agree.
Do you have children? We were never blessed that way, but we both come from large families, so there are always several little ones being born. The latest are Caden, Liam Joseph, Sarah, Emma, Keara, and Tessa. We have 14 Godchildren (see the dedication in Porcupine's Christmas).
last modified 3.03.05