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

Re: How paperbacks came to be sold like magazines

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

But wait! You forgot the Marshall Plan and Ian Ballantine!

Wherein Ian Ballantine had the really good idea of printing books in 25-cent paperback editions and selling them on US military bases all over the world after WWII. GIs came home, turned around, and asked where they could find those cheap books over here. And thus was born Penguin paperbacks, Pocket Books, and Ballantine Books. Not to mention Ace.

Re: How paperbacks came to be sold like magazines

[pnh.livejournal.com]

I didn't forget. I was asked to explain how mass-market paperbacks came to be sold like magazines instead of like conventional books.

Also, Penguin got started just before the war, and isn't (until many decades later) really part of the story of the American mass-market paperback. Although Penguin is definitely an important modern story all by itself.