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From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.research
Subject: Re: getting a book published
Message-ID: <466@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Jul-86 12:14:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.466
Posted: Mon Jul 28 12:14:07 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Jul-86 00:33:29 EDT
References: <171@pecnos.UUCP> <2024@utai.UUCP> <8189@duke.duke.UUCP>
Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner)
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
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Keywords: 15 percent
Xref: watmath net.books:3912 net.research:519

[...]

The following is based on a conversation with a Canadian publisher in 1976.
The situation may have changed and may be different in other countries.

	The retail price of a book is usually set at 5 times the cost
	of creating the physical book (printing, paper, binding, etc.).
	Thus we have:

		20%: material costs

	The mark-up on a book is 100%.  Therefore, the retailer gets
	50% of the retail price.  This may seem steep, but books do
	not have a fast turnover, and it is necessary to carry large
	slow-moving inventories.  Anyway...

		50%: retailer's cut

	The author gets 10-15% of retail price for hard cover books
	(less on mass market paperbacks).

		15%: author's royalty

	Amount left for the publisher: 15%, and this has to cover
	the cost of distribution, publicity, editor salaries, design
	(e.g. paying an artist to draw a cover), and so on.  Now
	most of these jobs (editing, design, etc.) are one-shot
	deals; distribution is the only continuing expense.  Thus
	if the book sells well, the publisher comes out ahead;
	however, if the book does not sell, the publisher loses
	money, because the expenses have to be paid regardless of
	number of books sold.

MORAL: If a book sells well, publishing is profitable.  If not...I
don't know about other countries, but in Canada, almost all our
publishers are just scraping by.  (The exception is Harlequin,
which is something of a mixed blessing.)

			Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo