Quote:
Originally Posted by nabsltd
So, what you're saying is that publishers never really lose money on any books...they just fudge the accounting to make it look like most authors never earn back their advance.
Because, that's the way it has been for almost all movies, TV shows and musical recordings for the last 50 years. |
I can't speak for what my friend was saying. But I suspect that your statement is not far from accurate. I don't doubt that there are some books where money is actually lost, but I would be surprised if there are that many. The large Publishers had things their own way for a vary long time, just like the large players in the movie and music industry. For a long time I think the public was encouraged to view a book not earning out as being synonymous with a loss by the Publisher on that book. As we can see from this thread, this still seems to be quite a common misconception, even amongst intelligent well informed people. It's probably one of these things which is usually taken at face value and not usually questioned. Unfortunately figures are not available to show just how many books do in fact make a loss.