I earnestly beg you not to do business with any publisher that offers you such a deal. While in theory they might be honest, in practice I've never seen nor heard of one that was. Proposals to share the risks are reliably a sign that you're dealing with a scammer.
Think of the worst books you've seen commercially published. Their publishers paid all costs. If a book were worse than that, do you imagine anyone would read it?
You can't share the risk. Your advance is only a fraction of the total cost. If the publisher has a real marketing, promotion, distribution, and publicity operation going, a genuine share of the risk would cost more than most people can imagine paying.
Re: Share the risk?
I earnestly beg you not to do business with any publisher that offers you such a deal. While in theory they might be honest, in practice I've never seen nor heard of one that was. Proposals to share the risks are reliably a sign that you're dealing with a scammer.
Think of the worst books you've seen commercially published. Their publishers paid all costs. If a book were worse than that, do you imagine anyone would read it?
You can't share the risk. Your advance is only a fraction of the total cost. If the publisher has a real marketing, promotion, distribution, and publicity operation going, a genuine share of the risk would cost more than most people can imagine paying.