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

[alg.livejournal.com]

How many books with gay main characters are on the shelves right now? Plenty. Losing Wal Mart doesn't mean losing everything -- heck, 90% of all SF and fantasy titles never see a WalMart shelf. They're packaged in a different way and sold to a different audience. As I said in the post -- this is just one example of one publishing model.

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

Lol, so my naughty boys can have some fun. :)

It's not Romance, it's a subplot in a Historical Fiction novel, but an important one.

I asked because there's a discussion going on on Romancing the Blog (http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/?p=610#comments) whether WalMart politics influence writers and publishers.

[alg.livejournal.com]

People should write what they want to write. Let publishers sort out whether or not to publish it. And then if publishers decide not to, stick it on a shelf.

Having a major secondary character be gay certainly doesn't seem to have hurt the sales of Hunter's Moon or Moon's Web. Hell, the main character in the Kushiel books is bisexual.

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

Not only the main character, lol.

Kushiel fan here.
Though there are moments when I want to shake Phèdre. Which puts her in good society with Gwendolen Harleth, Marianne Dashwood and several others. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

As alg pointed out, there are more booksellers than just Wal-Mart. There are also other publishing houses.

Absolutely, a writer should write what he or she wants to write. If not, the story won't be much good anyway. There will always be readers for good stories, no matter the genre. That's why we read. That's why there are authors, editors, publishers, bookstores, libraries.... Oh, sorry, I'll put down the pom-poms and the banner. ;D

Yes, there are readers who appreciate stories involving gay characters. Let me see stories where GLBT characters are remarkably heroic...or remarkably ordinary. Either is fine.

My point is this: There's a market for gay characters and gay authors. Don't defeat yourself by telling yourself that your plan is lost before it gets started. If Plan A doesn't work, there're still at least 25 more letters. Maybe more, in Sebacean. -- Now go write!