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

Mass Market Returns

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

I used to work for a Borders, so I'll just comment that the whole idea of a MM paperback being "pulped" is a bit of a dream. What we actually did was strip the covers and throw the books in the dumpster (because there was no good paper recycling in our area.)

Mind you, this was the same dumpster being used by the restaurant next door, so the phrase "turned to goo" isn't too far off. But this is why paperbacks have that little notice about "if you purchased this book without a cover..." printed on the copyright page.

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?

Re: Mass Market Returns

[(Anonymous)]

I worked for a big Canadian book chain, and the same deal at our store - absolutely no recycling of stripped mass markets, or stripcover magazines. Dumpsters full of *recyclable* garbage headed to the landfill every week. And as employees we weren't allowed to take home any of this "garbage" - as publishers require that stripcovers are destroyed.

Another ridiculous thing is how large quantities of mass market are ordered into a store, hundreds more than could possibly sell.. just so displays, tables and shelves look full. Screw you, Earth - I've got to complete this planogram!

It's a dirty secret, customers don't know about it.. and would probably be shocked if they knew how much waste a bookstore can generate.