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| So few bucks! |
First of all tonight, I want to wish all my readers a very
happy and safe Fourth of July celebration. Happy Birthday, USA!
In this post I want to discuss a topic that we all probably
know a little about - at least in part: The cash flow (or lack of it) in the
current publishing landscape.
I just LOVE IT when I hear someones first person experience
in publishing their first book. Especially from an experienced journalist or
writer.
This scenario allows us to relate and learn from another's first-hand endeavors and will, hopefully, encourage questions and/or
recommendations from others depending on their own past experience and position
in the publishing food chain.
This from Thomas Lee, a San Francisco Chronicle Business
Columnist:
Are there brutal economics in book publishing? Let me tell
you...
Writing a book was like disappointing my parents all over
again.
Like many Chinese immigrants, they wanted their only son to
be a high-earning doctor or lawyer. Instead, he became a newspaper journalist
who valued career satisfaction over dollars and cents. (Don’t worry, Mom and
Dad, I sometimes wonder if I’m related to you, too).
So to my surprise, my mom was unusually excited when I told
her two years ago that I was taking some time off to pen a book.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “You make lots of money!”
I suspected she was confusing my project — a niche business
book about retail and technology called “Rebuilding Empires” — with the work of
J.K. Rowling: “Harry Potter and the Resurrection of the Big Box Store.”
Little did she know, there are some brutal economics
underpinning the book publishing industry. As I would soon discover firsthand,
most books — even those published by major houses like Random House, Hachette
and Simon & Schuster — don’t make much money or any at all.
Blame it on a number of factors: the low-cost dominance of
Amazon; competition with other entertainment venues like Netflix, cable TV and cineplexes; or the fact
that I picked a niche topic in the business world.
In any case, an unknown first-time author like myself pretty
much assumes nearly all of the financial risk.
I was actually one of the luckier ones — at least my
publisher offered a modest advance. Many authors don’t even get that.
Not surprisingly, that advance disappeared quickly when I
took a three-month unpaid leave to research the book. How else would I find the
time to work on it?
Unless you’re independently wealthy, the choice comes down
to begging your employer for a leave or not sleeping for the next 12 months. (Which happened
anyway).
The publisher agreed to print about 5,000 copies, which it
distributed to Barnes & Noble, Amazon and various independent bookstores
and wholesalers. In order for the publisher to recoup its advance, “Rebuilding
Empires” needs to sell 2,000 copies. After that, I get paid a percentage of the
list price of each book sold, a royalty rate that gradually goes up the higher
the sales.
That doesn’t seem so bad. But here’s the thing that most
people don’t really know: Publishers have near-zero marketing budgets to promote your
book.
It seems counterintuitive. To make money, you must spend
money. Yet the author is ultimately responsible for spreading the word.
But maybe the book will build some momentum after positive
reviews, right?
Think again. Outside major names like the New York Times and
Los Angeles Times, the media hardly reviews any kind of book these days — never
mind nonfiction business books like “Rebuilding Empires.”
The publisher recently sent me some sales data: since
December, net sales for “Rebuilding Empires” (that is, sales minus the number
of copies retailers ultimately shipped back to the publisher) totaled about
1,500 units and 100 e-books. Those figures also include international sales,
from Great Britain, France, Canada, New Zealand (of all places) and Japan.
I’m actually pretty pleased with the results. Despite the
lack of marketing muscle, “Rebuilding Empires” is considered something of a
success, selling about a third of its printed run in just seven months and
about 80 percent of the target set by the publisher to recoup the advance.
All in all, “Rebuilding Empires” will probably turn a
profit, though I really can’t say when.
Until then, my mom will have to temper her expectations.
Read Thomas Lee's original article (with comments) in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Writers Welcome Blog is available on your Kindle here :)
Research/Resource article: http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Are-there-brutal-economics-in-book-publishing-6363578.php
