Quote:
Originally Posted by shalym
The $50,000 per book number comes from this thread. The 10,000 books per year number comes from Harper Collins web site. The $500,000,000 number comes from simple math.
Why do their offices need to be in NYC? Why aren't copy editors and proof readers work from home jobs? What is it about those jobs that requires that they be done at the office, instead of at home?
"Specific to the business of publishing" means finding and paying authors, editing and typesetting/formatting, finding and paying cover artists, and printing, storing, and shipping the books.
None of that requires having a large office in NYC, or London, or Paris.
Shari
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Thanks for both this post and your previous one, which are accurate and to the point. I think the New York HQ is one element which is often mentioned, but is more relevant as a symbol of the profligate corporate culture of the Publishers concerned. What I believe is that over decades without price competition they became addicted to a bloated and exploitative business model in an industry over which they held a stranglehold. That business model allowed them to keep virtually all of the revenue the industry produced, wihout the need for efficiency. They now need to compete with one of the most innovative, efficient and ruthless companies the world has known, as well as many innovative players who are adapting to the new conditions much better. As their blockbuster authors cease to write and physical bookstores become less and less important, they will need to compete both to procure new authors on the cost side of the equation and compete with Indie pricing on the revenue side. To do this they must radically change their culture to become competitive, including slashing their bloated cost structures.