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

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

Does the mass-market failure ever turn into a hit years later? IE- If Aeryn Sun started writing Blaze novels under the name Kara Thrace, is there any chance of Crichton is an Idiot being re-released with a thingy saying "Written by Aeryn Sun, aka Kara Thrace" (I know they don't really say that), or does this original P&L pretty much doom it to never coming back?

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

No. Crighton is an Idiot will go out of print within the year, and never be heard from again, except possibly as a POD book put out by a small press after the author becomes a big hit.

[alg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, especially since "big hit" in category romance is pretty much a meaningless phrase.

[(Anonymous)]

If Aeryn Sun turns into Tami Hoag fifteen years later, then, yes, every scrap of old published work will come back into print with the author's name in very large type.

(We had a discussion in my company's editorial meeting this week about how Bantam is bringing back, just about simultaneously, three creaky old Loveswept novels by people like Hoag -- and two others whose name I forget -- as $15 hardcovers this summer.)

But the success level required for that is #5 New York Times bestseller or better. (And consistently.) I know that every writer assumes that level of success will inevitably happen for her, since she is smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies, but the odds of it actually happening makes Mega Millions look like a charity program.

Andrew Wheeler
Senior Editor, SF Book Club
http://antickmusings.blogspot.com

[alg.livejournal.com]

Word.

See my comment in this same thread with a similar notation.

[alg.livejournal.com]

This is a complicated question.

The answer is basically NO. Not in the scenario you describe.

However, if the Kara Thrace name were to really take off, and KT started writing these great books that hit the NYT and USAT lists, and Aeryn went over to Pocket and started doing hardcovers under the name Kara Thrace, there is a 100% chance that either:

(1) her first company would rerelease Crichton is an Idiot and make some money off her ass

or

(2) her first company would realize that they'd reverted the rights to her years ago, and Aeryn would sell the rights to Pocket and they'd release it in whatever format they wanted, and put, BY NYT AND USAT BESTSELLING AUTHOR KARA THRACE writing as Aeryn Sun or whatever.

There's always the Davinci Code

[(Anonymous)]

S&S had a couple of Dan Browns on their backlist, that sold nada on release, but is now generating significant revenue. The central point is that most books are crapshoots.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

It's not actually a 100% chance, sadly; ask Jennifer Crusie's fans, who would dearly love copies of The Cinderella Deal. Unfortunately, Bantam is sitting on the rights; Crusie's comment is "The Cinderella Deal and Trust Me On This belong to Bantam, and they're waiting until I get famous to reissue them." And, yes, Crusie does make the NYT, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestseller lists.

[alg.livejournal.com]

Okay, sorry -- it's a 99% chance!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't have nitpicked you; I'm sure you are completely correct. It's just frustrating to see certain paperbacks (Susan Kay's *Phantom* is another) priced at four times the cover price and higher, and yet remain unavailable in editions that would actually pay royalties to the writer.

[alg.livejournal.com]

I completely understand. I feel the same way about Suzanne Brockmann! (Although now her out of print stuff is being put back into print, finally.)

Part of the problem here is that publishers only have so many slots -- and unless an author is Nora Roberts, we just can't, most of the time, justify using a mass market paperback slot for a reprint. I am not saying this is the only reason -- but it's definitely one of them.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Let us not speak of how much I paid for The Admiral's Bride.

[(Anonymous)]

Lesson 1: If you make it big, you can make it bigger, because your fans will want to collect all your work.

Lesson 2: Author, be not ashamed of thy published works, for verily, thou didst receive a paycheck for something thou wrotest from out of thine pointed head.

Lesson 3: The publishers didn't fall off the turnip truck, they'll jump on the bandwagon (more fun than the turnip truck) and make money to recoup their other losses. If they can say they have a "long-forgotten tome of some mysterious lore" by fabulously famous Granny Noranti, formerly Hot Mama Noranti, so much the better. (Hot Mama Noranti? Blame the Evil Plot Bunnies....)