Shocking News To
Authors: The Book Business Is A Business First
By W. Terry Whalin
Before
I began working inside a book publishing house, I had written more than 50
nonfiction books, ranging from children’s to adult books. I have never
self-published a book and always worked through traditional publishers.
However, I was unaware of the financial production numbers for nonfiction books
and I found it shocking—and something critical for potential authors to
understand. The author never sees these figures for their books as the
publisher doesn’t reveal them throughout the contract negotiation process. A
publisher will produce these financial calculations as simply a part of good
business practices. As an author,
understanding this helped me see publishing as a business. Authors have huge
amounts of time and emotional investment in their words. When I saw these
production numbers, I understood that the publisher, not the author, has the
largest out-of-pocket cash investment in a book.
Inside the publisher, the editor will gather
a sales projection about how many copies the sales department believes they can
sell of your title the first year. That sales figure will be used to
calculate the production costs of ink, paper and binding for various amounts of
printing (5,000, 10,000 or 15,000 copies). As the initial print number is
raised, the cost per book decreases. You may ask, So why not print a large
volume each time? The answer is, if the publisher prints a large number of
copies, then he has to store those copies in their warehouse (read cost and
expense), plus make sure they actually sell those copies within a year’s
timeframe. The cost of tying up financial resources in storing and warehousing
books that aren’t selling is large. Also the federal government taxes
publishers on each copy in storage. These tax rules have forced publishers to
think long and hard about how many copies of each book to print.
Inside
my former publisher, we calculated the overall printing details of the book
(paperback with general publishing look or hardcover with jacket) and the
number of books to print before offering a book contract. In short, publishers
pour a great deal of work into their books and financial projections before
they call you and offer a nonfiction book contract. Understanding this process
helps you see some of the reasons it takes such a long time for an author to
receive a publishing contract…
Often the publisher returns to an author with
whom they have already published a book. If the publisher takes a second
or third book from the same author, they are investing in that author’s career
and trying to build that author’s audience and market. If the author’s books
are selling well, then the publisher will be eager for another project. Each
week, publishers monitor sales numbers on their books to see if particular authors
merit another book contract.
Many
writers focus only on the creative aspects of writing a book and getting it
published, but the executives inside a publishing house are business people who
want to sell books and turn a profit at the end of the day. It’s a delicate
balance between creating the best possible product and assuring that each
product has the best opportunity to sell into the market and reach the target
audience.
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W. Terry Whalin, a writer and publisher lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
A former acquisitions editor, former magazine editor and former literary agent,
Terry has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams.
To help writers, he has created 12-lesson online course called Write
A Book Proposal. His
website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com.
