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Originally Posted by rhadin
Back when I was running a small publishing company we ultimately determined that it was impossible to make money on any size initial press run of an MMPB, unless it was a large run, returns didn't exceed 5%, and all the rest of the run was sold to consumers -- in other words, not possible. Instead, we tried to beat the pattern and do a small press run (5-10,000) and build enough interest for a backlist (there was no POD in those days). Unfortunately, that didn't work either because for a small press, which we were, distribution and warehousing costs ate up profits and returns killed us. Even backlist titles became problematic.
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If you're a small publisher, I don't think you
can make money on MMPB sales. You are undercapitalized, likely can't produce large enough press runs to properly feed the distribution channels, and almost certainly can't afford the losses on books that don't sell.
Add the fact that it can take 6 months for sales to be tallied and returns to come in to even know if you made money.
The bankruptcy of Advanced Marketing Services in 2007 also took down their Publisher's Group West subsidiary, which provided distribution for a number of small presses. The Perseus Books Group bought PGW, but a fair number of imprints were casualties. They simply couldn't handle the interruption in their cash flow, or the 70 cents on the dollar they got, if lucky, on what they were owed after bankruptcy. And those who survived seemed to largely drop fiction from their lines. Adieu, Four Walls, Eight Windows. Adeiu, Carroll and Graf. Adieu...
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If I were doing it today, I would do a very small press run -- just large enough to put a book or two in most book retailers hands -- and then POD thereafter.
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Which retailers? Depending on how you distribute, that may be more than a very small press run.
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Ultimately, however, the difference between success and failure is the amount of money and effort put into marketing a title (assuming the writing is good), and even with the Internet, marketing costs are not cheap, which is why there is so much consolidation among publishers.
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And the fact of life for most authors is that marketing is on them. Publisher reserve promotional dollars for the new Jonathan Kellerman or the like, to let the author's following know there
is a new one available. Marketing devoted to new/midlist authors is negligible.
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Dennis