I am a first-time novelist and an associate of mine has a manuscript, as well. I was wondering if anyone could advise me on the average/base price manuscripts sell for these days. My associate's book is a fantasy; mine is around the drama/suspense genre. My book is about 535-550 book-formatted pages and surpasses 160,000 words. I plan to study the market more at a later time but for now, what is (or is there) a general base average for manuscripts these days? Any links or misc. info would be appreciated greatly.

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really doesn't matter what type of book you've written, how many words or if you've studied the market! it depends on how good your writing is, the luck of finding a willing publisher etc - best of luck chuck, but i would think the money would be a secondary preocupation to the actual literary worth of your book

Only your publisher knows for sure. ;-)

Firstoff, 160,000 words is too long for a debut suspense novel. It should be 80,000-100,000 words. A word count that high will really turn off agents and editors. Trim, edit, trim. As far as how much you'll get for a debut. I'd say the average for a suspense debut is $10,000-$15,000 if you have an agent. Same with fantasy. Without an agent, you can only get into small publishers and you'll get only $1000-$3000 if anything at all. Here's how you get an agent: 1) Finish the first draft of a manuscript. Let trusted friends read it. Revise. 2) Read these two books: Noah Lukeman's THE FIRST FIVE PAGES and SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Rennie Browne Then edit your manuscript again. 3) Once your manuscript is perfect, it's time for the query letter. You can google "sample query letters" to get a feel for how they're done. Make sure your query letter is perfect. Post it on writers.net or absolutewrite.com for critique. 4) Once your query is perfect, start to research agents. Look in books that are similar to yours in the acknowledgments--authors usually thank their agents there. You can use agentquery.com to find out what genres agents accept and whether they are looking for new clients. Also, sign up for the free newsletter from publishersmarketplace.com and you will read some deals in there. Pay attention to which agents are making deals for debut authors. 5) Most importantly, check Preditors & Editors before you query each agent and make sure the agent is ok! If the agent is not recommended, do not query them. Here is the link: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/ The rule is... money flows to the writer. You should not pay a cent to get published. A real agent takes 15% of the sale and does not charge you unless he/she makes a sale. Do not pay anyone anything. After you sign with an agent, they will submit the manuscript to publishers. Good luck!

Mystery has some good advice, but also realize it's possible to sign a contract and never make anything from it. If a publisher decides to sit on the book and doesn't bother putting it out (it's happened, I talked to an author trying to get her rights back because of it), you'll get nothing and can't market it elsewhere. Be very careful about any contract you sign. Also, many writers never make anything over their advance. Much of it depends on your own willingness to market it yourself, however it gets published. Don't expect your publisher to do it. The big houses are losing money and don't have the funds to put much into marketing an unknown. Study the whole production process well before submitting anywhere! That's a must! You'll never learn enough here to be well-informed on the issue. Good luck!

in barnes and noble, they have alot of books for around 8-9.00$ so i hope this helps

In addition to the other excellent advice, go to the library and look at a current copy of "Writer's Market." It will give you a heads up on which publishers are interested in publishing the genres you mention, along with addresses and contact information for editors. As a point of reference, a story on NPR a few days ago talked about 10,000 titles being published in 2005 (I believe,) and 5 of those books accounting for 70% of the book sales for the year. You might have a compelling work right out of the gate, but it is entirely possible that you could publish several books and still not be to afford to quit your day job. Do follow up with research about self promotion with the links from the other answers, and when you do have an agent, assert to him/her how vigorously you are willing to beat the streets on behalf of your book.