Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
Is publishing so unprofitable that a mere 3.3% down is going to turn black numbers into red ones?
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What a 3.3% drop in sales does to a publisher, depends upon:
- What the initial figure was;
- The size of the organization;
- The financial reserves of the organization;
- The debt load of the organization;
- Ongoing short term projects;
- Ongoing long term projects;
Some guidelines I read a while ago:
- 70% of the titles won't sell enough copies to pay the printer;
- 20% of the titles will sell enough copies to cover all of the costs associated with publishing them;
- 9% of the titles will sell enough copies, to subsidise the books that did not generate enough revenue to pay the printer;
- 1% of the titles will generate enough sales to pay for everything else;
If your financials are based on those guidelines, and your overall sales drop by 3%, your finanicials might drop enough that your 1% are no longer able to subsidize everything else.
That happened to me. The publisher loved my book, because it would enhance their backlist. As a front-list title, it wouldn't cover printing costs, and their 10% weren't doing quite well enough to justify publishing a known money-loser. (My book is "back list only" material, designed to enhance the reputation of the publisher as a specialist in that field.)