Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
As I said, it really depends on how close a book is to earning out. Obviously, the exact number depends on the publisher, the author, what the contract is and how good the publisher is at judging the market for a book (I use publisher here as the person who makes the publish/don't publish decision, not the umbrella publishing company). Most of the "make money on books that didn't earn out" that I see, tend to be big advances and big sales. The one that I link at the end, talks about printing 50K books and selling 25K books. You kind of need that level of sales to cover that $50K overhead that each title is charged. But quite a few books don't even hit the 10K books sold level, especially if it's a new author who doesn't have a big media blitz. One author blog I read talked about a first book and getting 5K in book sales on the first royalty statement.
So making a profit on a book that doesn't earn out really depends on if you are talking about someone who will sale in the 25K books range(best seller or well known author), or in the 5K book range (the vast majority).
url - http://chipmacgregor.typepad.com/mai...-earn-out.html |
Yes, agreed. The confusion comes in because publishers seem to throw out the idea of "not earning out" as losing money and that is not always the case. They seem to do this most often as a ploy to gain sympathy or cut advances. Not saying it is a bad idea to do that sort of thing, but it leaves an incorrect assumption out there for people not more familiar with the industry.
In some genres selling only 3k books is not unusual. One of the reasons the larger publishers now have "ebook only" imprints is because there is a market for books that sell a small number, but because they sell a small number, it is not worth: 1. paying the same advances as for a book expecting larger sales and 2. going to print 3. spending money on marketing in the same manner.
I think everyone is still learning about marketing and selling ebooks. They don't go "out of print" so I'm not sure it's been determined how long a company (or individual) will spend money marketing/selling a particular ebook or series. The "lifespan" of a book is different now than it was 10 years ago.
To some degree the ebook reader is a different reader than a print reader as well. And the market is still evolving so there is much to learn.