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

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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: Share the risk?

[halspacejock.livejournal.com]

Small press pay little or no advance. (I don't mean POD or vanity or self-pub) With a small press it's author + publisher against the world, with the author standing out front as the world advances on them. Downside: if you want to be loved and cuddled by your publisher this is not good. Upside: you have more say in your future.
Like you, I was more interested in the getting published side than the getting paid lots up front side. However, you DO have to look at the distribution your chosen publisher has in place.
I'm published by a small press in Australia, but that small press has a distribution arrangement with Penguin, whose reps treat my book as one of their own outside my home state.
The publicist at FACP has been great with getting me exposure in the media, but I've also done my own bit by lining up a few reviews and cover blurbs. It feels like a collaborative effort, and that's how I like it.
Almost twenty years in small business (wholesale and retail) had me nodding my head at everything alg was saying. Books are products like any other - regard them as such and the whole crazy system suddenly makes sense.