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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: Share the risk?
Date: 2006-04-27 12:24 am (UTC)I earnestly beg you not to do business with any publisher that offers you such a deal. While in theory they might be honest, in practice I've never seen nor heard of one that was. Proposals to share the risks are reliably a sign that you're dealing with a scammer.
Think of the worst books you've seen commercially published. Their publishers paid all costs. If a book were worse than that, do you imagine anyone would read it?
You can't share the risk. Your advance is only a fraction of the total cost. If the publisher has a real marketing, promotion, distribution, and publicity operation going, a genuine share of the risk would cost more than most people can imagine paying.