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

[tharain.livejournal.com]

You so win.

However, I, for one, never want to write again. Or rather, never want to try to get published in the first place. Oh. My. God.

[alg.livejournal.com]

Hey, listen, my mantra is this:

Writing is an art. Publishing is a business.

It doesn't really work, because publishing is its own kind of art, but whatever. The point remains.

[tharain.livejournal.com]

No, no, no. I totally get that it's a business, and these posts are invaluable (as well as funny as all get out).

I'm just feelin' like my friends must have felt when they went to NYC in their twenties in order to become stars on Broadway (and their stories are the ones that kept me firmly in the facilities management job market).

I'm also feeling very "Wow. Real people who are real writers don't get published. Just go sit in a corner."

I guess I just identify myself as an Aeryn at the moment (pre-Kara Thrace, of course). A clever dilettante who amuses his friends, but had better stick to Lulu or other such PODs. It's all very intimidating.

[alg.livejournal.com]

tnh says:

It could be worse. You could want to be a rock star.

[tharain.livejournal.com]

This conversation sucks for my nasal passages.

That and I'm disturbing the people in the next office. Poor them.

[alg.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha. I have no pity.

I do want to be a rock star. But I cannot play an instrument worth a damn, nor can I sing, and the grunge movement is over. So if you feel frustrated, just think of me -- I will never fulfill my dream career EVER.

[tharain.livejournal.com]

Oh, noooooooooooooo. You, too can be a star! It's all about the Podcasts, woman. Get the mp3 files, a microphone, some software, and you too can be an online rockstar. I even have a DVD (live) and a studio recorded piece.

Tiffany made her one hit wonderdom workin' the mall circuit...

Wo. A very cute guy just walked by. Brain fuse.

...so you can do it online.

Or, as an alternative, American Idol, that insulting, agist darling of a television show.

[alg.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHA times a million!

[tharain.livejournal.com]

::grins::

I might not win, but I score. =D

[(Anonymous)]

Beware the rattlers in the stomach, for they are notions of motion, sound and furies, signifying nothing.

^ The above mangled, mixed metaphor combines Farscape, Ecclesiastes, and the Bard in ways heretofore I did not even contemplate.

The rattlers in your stomach don't mean a thing. -- Reach for the stars and grab 'em. This is your playground. Remember that, son (or jirl).

[tharain.livejournal.com]

And, of coruse....the pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true...

Don't worry!

[(Anonymous)]

There will be a "Grunge II", sooner or later. You can be a star. And I can be a novelist. It'll all work out in the end.

Or something.

-- Jules, who doesn't have a LiveJournal account yet.