but no one tracks the print runs, except the publisher. The only thing that sticks with the author is register sales.
No. If I'm considering buying a novel from Calvin Aargh (winner of the Huge and Nobbly awards, but not previously published by Tor), and I can see that Bookscan reports 16,000 sales on his last paperback, it's trivially easy for me to find out whether that was 16,000 copies out of 22,000 distributed (very nice!) or out of 50,000 gross (oh dear).
For one thing, it's entirely possible I can pick up the phone and call his editor at his last house. Or someone else who works at his last house and has access to their figures. Or someone else who works for some other house or imprint or distributed line that shares the same sales organization as his last house and thus has access to their figures.
Then there's talking with the buyers for the major chains, who will certainly remember if Mr. Aargh's sell-through for them was good or terrible. And we haven't even gotten into the the world of agents, people who work for agents, former editorial assistants, etc etc...
It's a small industry. The idea that "the only thing that sticks with the author is register sales" is flatly false. Now, of course, it's another question whether an author is responsible for a former publisher overdistributing them relative to demand. There are all kinds of reasons to take on an author whose former books had lousy sell-throughs. But the idea that a disastrous sell-through can be hidden because Bookscan only tracks point-of-sale? No.
Re: Returns - always bad?
No. If I'm considering buying a novel from Calvin Aargh (winner of the Huge and Nobbly awards, but not previously published by Tor), and I can see that Bookscan reports 16,000 sales on his last paperback, it's trivially easy for me to find out whether that was 16,000 copies out of 22,000 distributed (very nice!) or out of 50,000 gross (oh dear).
For one thing, it's entirely possible I can pick up the phone and call his editor at his last house. Or someone else who works at his last house and has access to their figures. Or someone else who works for some other house or imprint or distributed line that shares the same sales organization as his last house and thus has access to their figures.
Then there's talking with the buyers for the major chains, who will certainly remember if Mr. Aargh's sell-through for them was good or terrible. And we haven't even gotten into the the world of agents, people who work for agents, former editorial assistants, etc etc...
It's a small industry. The idea that "the only thing that sticks with the author is register sales" is flatly false. Now, of course, it's another question whether an author is responsible for a former publisher overdistributing them relative to demand. There are all kinds of reasons to take on an author whose former books had lousy sell-throughs. But the idea that a disastrous sell-through can be hidden because Bookscan only tracks point-of-sale? No.