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

p and l spreadsheet paperbacks

[(Anonymous)]

You need to factor in cost of money, ie interest. While not as big a factor in prior low interest era, it is about to be much more important. It can greatly reduce profitability.

Re: p and l spreadsheet paperbacks

[mariongropen.livejournal.com]

That would be true for a company -wide P&L, but not as useful in the single title tool. This kind of management report is designed to help non-accountants sort through the choices available and pick the ones most likely to help the company. Interest costs should be pretty much constant across the company, as will the projected life of an unknown book within a single market segment.

Or, in short, not so much for this type.

Of course, this is just an opinion.