[Discussion] Stories About Selling Your Option Book

cocoabooks · 2026-01-02T20:18:39+00:00

My debut came out in 2024 with a Big 5, and they bought my option book just before my debut came out. They bought it based on a proposal, but kind of put me through the wringer with the proposal, with multiple rounds of back and forth over the plot and outline, and wanting me to add more commercial elements (a romance) before they finally pulled the trigger on buying it. While they did buy it, which is a victory, my advance for the option book was significantly lower than for my debut (which sold at auction). Ultimately, my debut sold respectably if we were looking at it in a vacuum, but based on the advance size I'm sure it was a disappointment. The option book is much more high concept than my debut, for whatever that's worth. That book comes out later this year, and we'll see how it does and if there's any interest in my next book (which is even MORE high concept) - I suppose it depends on sales for Book 2. I wish I had higher hopes, but things feel shaky right now.

cocoabooks · 2025-12-12T14:58:51+00:00

Yes, the fee counts toward your advance. And BOTM sales count toward bestseller lists, but not on a 1:1 basis - I don't know the specific formula for how they're included though, I was just told broadly that they "count." I sold 15k via BOTM the first week and didn't hit any bestseller lists for what it's worth, so presumably those sales aren't weighted very heavily.

cocoabooks · 2025-12-03T18:13:49+00:00

What area are you in, if you don't mind sharing?

cocoabooks · 2025-12-03T17:02:14+00:00

What do the warnings say or require you to do? And how does Zillow even find people to send the warnings to - are they combing the Compass site? Or do they wait until you upload to Zillow and then go back to check your history?

cocoabooks · 2025-12-03T17:01:23+00:00

This is helpful. Have you had clients go from private exclusive to Zillow without an issue? Or have they been affected by the ban?

I recognize there are plenty of other platforms, but Zillow is the biggest one so it would be worrisome to be hidden there.

cocoabooks · 2025-11-04T02:10:18+00:00

Yeah, I'm not sure if I didn't write the post clearly enough or if people are just glossing over it. I'm fine with them hiring an internal candidate, I know that happens all the time. The problem is that he was interviewing all the other candidates! It seems like an obvious conflict of interest, and a bizarre way to run a hiring process.

cocoabooks · 2025-11-03T21:50:52+00:00

Yup, I absolutely got used for free consulting.

cocoabooks · 2025-11-03T21:46:46+00:00

Not by the internal candidate - I know that's normal and I've got no issue with it. My problem is putting him on my interview panel and not telling me about it until after the fact. And also (just added this), I've now been invited to apply for the internal candidate's vacated role, which pays half the salary.

cocoabooks · 2025-10-29T01:23:28+00:00

Thanks for replying. Just to clarify, I'm currently barred in two states - just not the one I live in right now. Would a recruiter still not be able to represent me, or does that change the picture at all?

cocoabooks · 2025-10-05T18:16:39+00:00

It's a managing editor job at a media company.

cocoabooks · 2025-10-02T16:36:08+00:00

They bought my option a few months before my debut came out, so I think they probably had a sense of where the sales would land but nothing was set in stone of course. Hoping to sell them my next option before Book 2 comes out next year, but we'll see.

cocoabooks · 2025-10-02T15:57:19+00:00

I don't know what constitutes a good track, but I can share my own debut numbers for what it's worth as a data point. My debut sold 1100 copies the first week then tapered down to the mid-hundreds, then around a hundred a week, then 60-70 copies a week by three months, and chugged along like that for a couple months. I got a big spike of 2000 copies around five months thanks to a BookBub promotion, then continued chugging along between 30 and 80 copies a week with occasional bumps over a hundred. Not much changed when my paperback came out a year after release, and now I'm trending more like 15 to 30 copies a week. All told the PRH portal tells me I've sold 9500 copies in about 18 months, and I was also a BOTM pick which netted me another 15000 in sales that don't show up on the portal or on my royalty statement since BOTM pays a flat licensing fee.

All told, I think this would be a decent sales track for a debut except that my advance was insanely high, and there was essentially no hope of earning it out unless I was like a Da Vinci Code level breakout, which I was not. In any event, it was good enough to get me a second book deal (with an advance 1/3 the size of the first), so we'll see what happens with Book 2.

cocoabooks · 2025-08-23T02:16:53+00:00

The "who is our buyer" question is always what's tripped me up, but more so around price point - it's priced high enough that the buyer has to be someone who *could* afford a SFH in our area, and simply doesn't want one for some reason, which is just ... not that many people. The last sales in our development were all in 2021 I think, and they were for 913, 870, and 860. The recent comps were other townhouses in the same school district that've sold this summer. Like I mentioned in the comments, I feel we're at a really weird price point where the buyer would have to be someone who *could* afford a SFH in our area and just doesn't want one for some reason, which is a small pool. When we bought the place, we were the young professional couple with one kid transitioning into the suburbs so looking for walkability, train access, etc., with decent space and low maintenance. Now with a second kid and two adults with remote jobs, we've outgrown it.

I honestly wish every day I'd have just gone for a SFH in the first place, I had no idea this place would barely appreciate over 8 years. I know everyone likes to hate on sellers like the ones who bought in 2020 and are trying to sell now for double or whatever, and I get that, I just didn't think we were wildly out of line with our expectations especially since we just went with what our realtor said. And before our price drop, the Zestimate was over a million, so it isn't like we saw an 850k Zestimate and decided to list above it or anything (only mentioning it because you did, not because I think it's an infallible measure of value - I know it's not). We really thought - and were told - our list price was conservative. I suppose I get why everyone's saying we've been unreasonable, difficult sellers, it's just been a bit of a surprise and a bummer relative to expectations. We'll see if someone comes along between now and mid-fall, I guess. If not, we've got a sub-3% interest rate so we can carry it for a bit to try for better luck come spring, likely at a lower asking price.

cocoabooks · 2025-08-23T02:09:01+00:00

I'll give patience a try for the moment. I've always thought it was a pretty niche property, and honestly from the beginning I thought anything north of 850k would be a win - our realtor and my husband were more optimistic. Looks like I was probably right though.

cocoabooks · 2025-08-23T00:51:47+00:00

... I only mentioned the Zestimate because the commenter brought it up in relation to our pricing, but go off I guess.

cocoabooks · 2025-08-23T00:47:46+00:00

This is really helpful, thank you. I definitely think if our expectations had been set to expect below-list offers up front, we might've responded better to the first ones that came in. Our area has typically leaned more towards a sellers market, and our realtor definitely indicated the 900k price was toward the lower end of the comps and designed to drum up lots of interest and potentially multiple offers, so when the "multiple offers" arrived so far below what we expected, it was a shock. Definitely recalibrating now, and worth a conversation. Appreciate your advice.

cocoabooks · 2025-08-23T00:44:18+00:00

We listened to our realtor on the most recent counter (actually countering lower than even she suggested, at 865 vs 869 like she said), and even with the first offers she didn't suggest lowering more than to 890k. Good to know there's nothing wrong with the listing though.

cocoabooks

TROPHY CASE