P&Ls and how books make (or don't) money
Apr. 20th, 2006 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
algProfit & 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.
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.
Re: breaking down some line items
Date: 2006-04-25 07:39 am (UTC)The typesetting and design fees seem on the low end, basically assuming only a bit of keyboarding, minimal corrections, house cover/text design, etc.
But the art, oh, my, why not spend that kind of money on an honest to god designer and let them provide the art, etc.? You can buy a serious photo shoot or art from real artists for significantly less and, of course, if you hire a real designer the book will look better than your average TOR book. You can hire freaking _Pentagram_ for a $5000 a book fee.
No, it doesn't solve all problems or assure sales but you are going to get a much better looking book if you move your money around a bit differently and/or let the designer deal with the art.
And, given the percentage of the total production you are spending on art it's probably actually worth rethinking your P&Ls once in a while. What if we toss the art altogether and then spend an extra $1000 on developmental/copy editing, an extra $1000 on promotional swag, and an extra $2000 on design? You might move a few more books and, for god's sake, your books will look better and have a better chance in bookstores.
Not that I have anything against the very fine TOR cover artists, of course.
Re: breaking down some line items
Date: 2006-04-27 02:14 am (UTC)It is not like getting an image from a stock catalogue (or istockphoto.com for cheap) and then having a designer do their magic. Has anyone seen many dragons in the stock photo catalogue recently? As an aside:I really think deviantart.com is missing a real opportunity by not offering a stock agency relationship out of the images on their site.
Designers don't deal well with artists, they deal well with art. Tor covers are exceptionally well tuned for the market they are selling for (it may not be your "adult" cup of tea). When I was fifteen and buying as many Tor books as I could get my hands on, it was because the "hero" was buff and the woman was barely dressed.
Ask any designer to produce that and they will fail, or know enough to say you are looking for a "real" artist, not a designer. A painting for $4500 would be cheap at a decent art gallery but somehow if it helps sell 20000 more books it is expensive.
My firm motto as an Art Director is a good cover will not sell a crappy book, a great book will sell itself despite what is on the cover, but if you put a great cover on a great book, it will get the sales representatives behind the book (they may even read a chapter or two) and your initial orders will sky rocket.
In the Tor market, teenage fantasies are driven by the cover, and thus sales are increased. In the Adult Trade Paperback the cover gets the book picked up, the quotes get it opened, but if the random page of writing that customer reads sucks that book is going nowhere.
Leslie Smith
Re: breaking down some line items
Date: 2006-04-27 01:44 pm (UTC)YES.
Thanks for jumping in here -- you've explained it better than I could!