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So this guy claims that Harper Voyager is "banning" and "censoring" him because they declined to publish his book. This woman is saddened that her publisher decided not to buy Book 5 in her series. Friends of the gentleman are arguing that his being dropped is proof that All New York Publishers Are Evil!11!!11 and as proof offer the fact the he self-published the book via Amazon. So, are New York publishers evil?
Well, the day John C. Wright gets dropped from Tor I'll listen to your argument. Wright has called his publisher a number of names in public, insulted a senior editor at that firm, and demanded that his publisher fire another editor. Yet Tor still publishes him. But on the other hand, many people seem to be making money off of self-published stuff that New York isn't buying. I think I know why, and why New York is not losing sleep over ebooks.
Back in the good old days before ebooks, publishing was expensive. To physically print a book you had to contract with an offset press, and they didn't want to make a print run of less than a thousand copies, for which they'd charge you a buck-fifty or so per book. So, just to create inventory, you're down $1,500. You then need to distribute this inventory, which means sending to bookstores to be sold on consignment. (They say "returnable" but it's legally consignment.) You have to pay to ship the books out and be ready to receive unsold books while getting paid for only the sold ones.
But to get to this point, one had to pay for editing, cover art and layout work. Oh, and you got paid 50% of the cover price - so that $12.95 trade paperback nets you $6.48. Just taking a few wild-ass guesses, one could easily be $5,000 into a book with a 1,000 copy run. To break even, you need to sell 772 copies of that book. ($5000 / $6.48 = 771.6)
Yet nobody wants to break even, and a 77% sell-through rate (sell-through = paid-for copies that walk out the bookstore) is damn good. So you need a larger print run (your cost goes down a bit per book but the total goes up) and all other costs stay the same. Assuming a 2,000 book run at $1.10 a copy, break-even is now 880 copies ($2200 print + $3500 editorial = $5700 divided by $6.48 = 879.6). That's a 44% sell-through - more likely.
However, nobody goes into business to break even, and the max revenue on a 2,000 book run is $12,900 for a profit of $7,260. Assuming a typical 50% sell-through, more likely max revenue is $6,480 or $780 profit. A lot of work for not much money, and that's for a cheap book. See if you can get a John Picacio cover for under $5,000.
Yet, ebooks and self or micro-press publishing puts these numbers on their head. One can still get $3500 or so into the book with editorial, etc. (and you really should). But producing an ebook costs nothing. An ebook at $2.99 on Amazon has a 70% profit margin or $2.09 per book. Breaking even requires a few more copies (1,675) but it's a hell of a lot easier to sell a book at $2.99 than it is at $12.95, and one's fixed costs are lower.
Essentially, the New York publishers have abandoned, or more accurately were never interested in, books that wouldn't sell 10,000 copies or more. But a self-published ebook that sells 2,000 copies makes a profit of $680. 3,000 copies = $2,770 profit (no production costs). By the time New York paid for cover art and distribution, they'd still be in the hole at 3,000 copies.
Not only aren't New York publishers losing sleep over self-publishing, they see it as an opportunity. Anytime something like The Martian or 50 Shades of Gray show signs of hitting it big, a publisher shows up on the author's doorstep with a contract and a truckload of money. Self-publishing is now an extension of the publisher's slush pile.
Lastly, publishers can and are playing the ebook game too. I love Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series. But I'll be damned if I'm going to pay hardcover prices for a book I'll read once and can't really give away. So I buy that in ebook. If the publisher is getting the same 70% from Amazon as I am, that's $7.70 to them for no production cost, vs. $12.48 to print and ship a hardcover. They'll take that ebook action all damn day.
So, no, Virginia, New York publishers aren't worried about ebooks and self-publishing. As a result, I tend to cast a gimlet eye on those who tell me that the Big New York Publisher is Picking On Them.
Well, the day John C. Wright gets dropped from Tor I'll listen to your argument. Wright has called his publisher a number of names in public, insulted a senior editor at that firm, and demanded that his publisher fire another editor. Yet Tor still publishes him. But on the other hand, many people seem to be making money off of self-published stuff that New York isn't buying. I think I know why, and why New York is not losing sleep over ebooks.
Back in the good old days before ebooks, publishing was expensive. To physically print a book you had to contract with an offset press, and they didn't want to make a print run of less than a thousand copies, for which they'd charge you a buck-fifty or so per book. So, just to create inventory, you're down $1,500. You then need to distribute this inventory, which means sending to bookstores to be sold on consignment. (They say "returnable" but it's legally consignment.) You have to pay to ship the books out and be ready to receive unsold books while getting paid for only the sold ones.
But to get to this point, one had to pay for editing, cover art and layout work. Oh, and you got paid 50% of the cover price - so that $12.95 trade paperback nets you $6.48. Just taking a few wild-ass guesses, one could easily be $5,000 into a book with a 1,000 copy run. To break even, you need to sell 772 copies of that book. ($5000 / $6.48 = 771.6)
Yet nobody wants to break even, and a 77% sell-through rate (sell-through = paid-for copies that walk out the bookstore) is damn good. So you need a larger print run (your cost goes down a bit per book but the total goes up) and all other costs stay the same. Assuming a 2,000 book run at $1.10 a copy, break-even is now 880 copies ($2200 print + $3500 editorial = $5700 divided by $6.48 = 879.6). That's a 44% sell-through - more likely.
However, nobody goes into business to break even, and the max revenue on a 2,000 book run is $12,900 for a profit of $7,260. Assuming a typical 50% sell-through, more likely max revenue is $6,480 or $780 profit. A lot of work for not much money, and that's for a cheap book. See if you can get a John Picacio cover for under $5,000.
Yet, ebooks and self or micro-press publishing puts these numbers on their head. One can still get $3500 or so into the book with editorial, etc. (and you really should). But producing an ebook costs nothing. An ebook at $2.99 on Amazon has a 70% profit margin or $2.09 per book. Breaking even requires a few more copies (1,675) but it's a hell of a lot easier to sell a book at $2.99 than it is at $12.95, and one's fixed costs are lower.
Essentially, the New York publishers have abandoned, or more accurately were never interested in, books that wouldn't sell 10,000 copies or more. But a self-published ebook that sells 2,000 copies makes a profit of $680. 3,000 copies = $2,770 profit (no production costs). By the time New York paid for cover art and distribution, they'd still be in the hole at 3,000 copies.
Not only aren't New York publishers losing sleep over self-publishing, they see it as an opportunity. Anytime something like The Martian or 50 Shades of Gray show signs of hitting it big, a publisher shows up on the author's doorstep with a contract and a truckload of money. Self-publishing is now an extension of the publisher's slush pile.
Lastly, publishers can and are playing the ebook game too. I love Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series. But I'll be damned if I'm going to pay hardcover prices for a book I'll read once and can't really give away. So I buy that in ebook. If the publisher is getting the same 70% from Amazon as I am, that's $7.70 to them for no production cost, vs. $12.48 to print and ship a hardcover. They'll take that ebook action all damn day.
So, no, Virginia, New York publishers aren't worried about ebooks and self-publishing. As a result, I tend to cast a gimlet eye on those who tell me that the Big New York Publisher is Picking On Them.
