Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
They pay the advance (which is non-returnable).
They pay for the physical design and printing of the book.
They pay for marketing (to the book trade).
They pay for editing.
|
All one-off costs that could easily be paid for from the profits from your previous book. The advance would be useful, but I somehow doubt they would give one to an unknown writer on the off-chance that they will write a decent book. Small press publishers don't pay any advances at all.
Most, if not all, writers will write their first book part time while they support themselves some other way. If they find enough of an audience for that to interest a big publisher they could easily live off that long enough to write their second book.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
Then, once the book has been produced, and they sell to the trade it's 100% returnable. Every copy the stores don't sell gets returned to the publisher and they have to eat that cost.
|
Not relevant to ebooks/POD books, and I think that is just in America anyway. Probably not relevant to any books 5 years from now.