P&Ls and how books make (or don't) money

[alg]

Profit & Loss/Profitability & Liability: How Books Make (or Don't Make!) Money

A basic outline of what happens when an editor buys a book and wants to publish it. This is very much a basic look at publishing and publishing finance, with some explanation of terms commonly used by the marketing and sales departments.

Comments

[celisnebula.livejournal.com]

Holy Hockey, that's a lot of money to shell out for a no-name nobody!
At least your break down makes me feel less guilty for spending over 100 bucks a month on books now (though I am still antsy about buying new authors).

[alg.livejournal.com]

If you think this theoretical amount is a lot, check out this:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2006-03-29-how-opal-mehta_x.htm

How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life by Kaavya Viswanathan -- $250,000 advance.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Now I absolutely have to read that book. I tutor several concurrent incarnations of Opal Mehta.

Thanks for the post!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Um, no. She seems to have both had the plotting done for her by a packaging company and have plagiarized some of the text.

http://jonquil.livejournal.com/414980.html

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I caught the NYTime article about that. It's a pity and a shame she didn't find an original way to tell the story. There's a huge audience of people who are hungry to see a twist on their own experience represented. I hope the right book comes down the pike for them soon.

Especially under the circumstances...

[(Anonymous)]

Which, apparently, is remarkably similar to Sloppy Firsts, by Megan McCafferty:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/04/23/similar_passages_in_two_books_published_5_years_apart

Oops!