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: How paperbacks came to be sold like magazines

[pnh.livejournal.com]

I didn't forget. I was asked to explain how mass-market paperbacks came to be sold like magazines instead of like conventional books.

Also, Penguin got started just before the war, and isn't (until many decades later) really part of the story of the American mass-market paperback. Although Penguin is definitely an important modern story all by itself.