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: Mass Market Returns

[(Anonymous)]

This is all incredibly interesting. One question I have is what sort of books end up at Overstock.com or Bookcloseouts.com or those discount bookstores where they have the 'remaindered' mark a lot of the time. And how do those books get there? Is buying from those places hurting publishers or authors?

Re: Mass Market Returns

[alg.livejournal.com]

YES. Buying any books remaindered or used hurts authors and their publishers. Do people (including people in the publishing industry) do it anyway? Of course!

I should talk about remaindering, you're absolutely right. I'll do that in the hardcover/mass market post.

Re: Mass Market Returns

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Surely by the time it's remaindered, it's too late for my buying full-price to do the author any good?