Royalties and advances from academic publishers: what should I look out for? I am an early-career academic in a humanities subject and have been offered my first book contract. The offer is from a reputable international commercial publisher, which has published several recent and important works in my field.

The publisher has offered an advance payment of c.$700/£500 on publication, but does not offer royalties. This is on the basis that most institutions are purchasing digital subscriptions as opposed to physical books or ebooks.

Having no prior experience of book contracts, I would like to gauge if this is a good deal in terms of payment, and what constitutes the norm for royalties for academic books.
For academic books, there may often be no royalties.  And only a small number of copies sold.  Maybe if your first book has unexpectedly large sales, you could negotiate something more on future books.  

Typically, though, academics publish books not to make money from the book, but to build their academic reputation.  And that may lead to promotions, tenure, hiring at more important universities, etc.