Random Thoughts: Publishing and the Publishing Biz
filed in Publishing Industry, Self Publishing on Feb.02, 2012
Another round of articles that try to look into the future of publishing… And one with thoughts about the proper price for an eBook and another on which is better for text, Serif or Sans Serif (the answer is not as simple as you might think):
The Book Publishing Industry of the Future: It’s All About Content
Short Cuts: Will the Marketplace Bring an End to New Literary Books?
Book Business Outlook For 2012: Hard Work Ahead
What’s the Right Price for Ebooks?
Which Typeface Is More Legible, Serif or Sans Serif?
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Duncan Long has worked for several decades as a writer/illustrator during which time he’s had 13 novels published. He’s also created over 1,000 book and magazine illustrations for HarperCollins, Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, The Sun, ILEX, and self publishing authors. You can explore many of Long’s book illustrations online at: Duncan’s Illustration Portfolio
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February 2nd, 2012 on 10:33 am
“A business that for the most part, operated on consignment and expected on average 40 percent of shipments (books) to come back? A business that too often printed more than it needed and ended up taking a loss on unsold books? A business that issued cash advances without much analytical foundation? A business that partly dealt in taste, but had no formal direct-to-consumer mechanism? A business with way too many expensive intermediaries?”
That pretty well sums up the mindset still adhered to by establishment publishing today. How many companies do you know other than the large publishing houses who would willingly throw money away by printing far too many units, then fully expect to write off nearly half of them? No wonder Neil Gaiman gives them five to ten years before they vanish into history Duncan. :)
February 2nd, 2012 on 10:51 am
Yes, Jack, that’s one of the disastrous practices that has just about doomed the publishing industry over the last 80 years. The practice started in the 1930s as a way to sell books during the Great Depression; publishers offered full refunds and so book sellers had nothing to lose if they sold the books in their stores. At that time, it was a brilliant idea that likely saved many publishers.
But it was never abandoned once the economy got back on its feet. And not only do publishers give full refund, the book seller only has to return the COVER of the book or magazine. So unlike an actual return where the product might be sold as used or at least recycled as paper waste, the publisher has only a cover.
This all means that books are priced almost twice as high as they would be without refunds. And the plus side, it means that POD and small presses that don’t allow such returns are able to compete with the big publishers.
Of course the big publishers might quickly turn things around if they could dictate no more returns unless the whole product is returned. With the high cost of shipping books back to the publisher, that would likely force book stores to make reasonable orders for books and push actual sales without returns of a title way up. But whether or not that will happen remains to be seen.
February 2nd, 2012 on 11:09 am
We live in interesting times ;)
Pricing is something I’m interested in. I wish there was a magic number, but I don’t think there is. I guess trial and error will be the go-to plan…
February 2nd, 2012 on 11:22 am
Pricing is tricky. My main suggestion is that you not price your books too low as many buyers will judge the worth of the book by its price. In some ways such judgments make sense; truly desperate (and often beginning) writers tend to price their books at 99 cents or such thinking people will buy more and they’ll thus make more cash. In fact, the best price appears to be $4 to $6 higher than that. Probably you should do a little searching on the web; I’m sure that authors who experimented with prices have likely shared their findings. I’d also suggest checking to see what the price of a similar book is when sold by a major publisher; the big presses are pretty savvy about pricing and it pays to copy their practices in pricing.
I have also heard of people temporarily selling books at a lower price (or even offering them for free) to “game Amazon.com into raising the popularity. Once the book rises, they then raise their price. I’m not sure how well this works, but it is an interesting concept.
February 3rd, 2012 on 12:16 pm
Thank You for writing such a helpful weblog. Some very useful articles for us authors.
February 5th, 2012 on 1:53 am
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