Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
The fact that you don't believe it doesn't make it untrue.
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The costs above specifically do not include warehousing or distribution.
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It is definitely part of the upfront cost. The publisher issues it to get the right to publish the book, as one of the first steps in the process. And the advance will influence other costs. as the larger the advance, the more effort the publisher will want to put into selling the book (and the larger the initial press run is likely to be.) What about it do you think makes it not an upfront cost? The publisher has already spent that money, and all they have at the moment is a manuscript. In fact, they may not have that: for established authors with track records, a book is usually sold on the basis of an outline and some sample chapters, so the author will typically cat a 50% cut of the negotiated advance with the contract, and the other 59% when the completed manuscript is turned in.
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First, just because you keep repeating it doesn't make it any more true than me not believing it makes in untrue.
Second, it doesn't sound fair to leave out warehousing or distribution, as they both contribute to the costs that the publisher needs to recover.
Third, I'm not an accountant, but I'd be willing to bet that those advances go on the books as something other than just a "cost". So I don't think that just because it hits the same definition of "spent" as we'd use for our household expenses means that it should really be viewed as an upfront cost in the complex accounting of a book contract.
But let's play the numbers game according to the way you've represented the numbers. I'll go for a "good" projected sale of 5000 copies, with an advance equal to 10% of the cover price of $10 for a mass market paperback, or $5000. So the unit cost is now $1, and we'll warehouse and distribute for free. The total printing cost is $5K, and that's going to be 20% of the total cost. Which means that the total cost of the book run is $25K. Total gross sales will be $50K and let's assume that the publisher nets half of that (which is generous), which is $25K. So they come out totally flat on the book, assuming that there are zero returns and the books magically appear in the stores without spending anything to warehouse them or ship them.
So I still say, "Busted".