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

Antitrust issues

[rakslice [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

>Note that every single bookselling outlet corporation must be offered the incremental coop. If we offer it to B&N, we also offer it to Your Mom's National Chain Bookstore. It has to do with monopoly laws, I think.

Uh...

Don't publishers sometimes agree contractually to give a distributor a price that is no higher than they give any other distributor (a so-called "Most Favoured Nation" clause)? Of course, I imagine that publishers wouldn't want to have a lot of distribution agreements with such clauses -- and certainly not all of them -- because even a handful would constitute price fixing, which is 100% the opposite of what antitrust law requires.

Of course I don't mean to suggest this is why your employer does it; I'm sure there plenty of other possible reasons. Fnord.

Maybe the "cooperative" nature of the advertising turns the tables somehow...

>Don't quote me on that.

Whoops... Too late. =)

Re: Antitrust issues

[alg.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. That's more involved than I've ever asked the explanation to be -- this particular area is not one in which I am an expert.