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: breaking down some line items

[(Anonymous)]

Granted. My comments might be considered to be off-topic. But part of what's wrong with NY publishing is that there are certain "truisms" that really aren't all that true. The fact that something costs XX dollars isn't necessarily written in stone. That's my real point.

You can make fun of my attitude -- folks often do -- but I believe that it's a mistake to instruct new writers (or others in publishing) on the inevitably of losing money on most all titles published. As I've written elsewhere, I believe that the notion that a book might lose money has turned into a license to lose money. That's not a good thing, and it's not part of the "realism" that I hope aspiring writers learn.

I don't believe that people in publishing are "dumb." Most folks I know who work in publishing are both intelligent and committed to their work. It's also true that most folk I know in publishing are often scathing in their criticism of the way things are done -- even at their own companies. And, for the most part, feel unable to change the system.

-- Jim

Re: breaking down some line items

[alg.livejournal.com]

In no place throughout any of my entries, this particular entries, or any comment thread do I tell anyone that it is inevitable that all or most titles lose money. Your comments seem to me to be reacting to something that is not in my text. I suggest you get a livejournal and blog about this yourself.

Re: breaking down some line items

[(Anonymous)]

I may have misread this line: "And this is totally normal. This is an average book."

When you say that this P&L represents the "average" book, what exactly do you mean, then? Do these numbers (or something close to these numbers) apply to 10% of what Tor/Forge publishes in this format? 30%? 60%?