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

[literaticat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This is great info. Aspiring authors often ask me questions like this and, while I knew the basic facts, I never factored in coop or magazine jobbers, different discounts, &c.

There are so many trade PB originals coming out in the next year -- will their numbers look more like MM or HB?

Oh, and on a slightly related note, what happens when a book is remaindered? I know why a book gets remaindered; I mean, what happens then, does the pub call it a wash as far as royalties are concerned?

[alg.livejournal.com]

The basic facts are complicated enough!

There are so many trade PB originals coming out in the next year -- will their numbers look more like MM or HB?

"Trade" is actually a distribution term -- the only question is if it is "trade cloth" (abbreviated as TC, also known as "hardcover") or "trade paper" (abbrev. TP or tpb.) Most trade paper original numbers, as far as I'm aware, look like the numbers for hardcovers -- sometimes slightly higher, since the price point is lower and we estimate that more people will shell out $14 instead of $24 -- or slightly lower, since libraries decide not to take as many.

The simple answer to your remainders question is YES, it's totally a wash for royalties. They're considered a loss, and our "profit" on them doesn't actually exist. I'll do a post about remainders with more details eventually.