john hunt
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No indication of the degree to which this applies across sub genres etc...
sure; we should update it. We will. Sorry about that. I guess average sales 4 years on are going to be lower. It's just an indication, along the lines of "not every book sells 10,000 copies". It's industry figures. We get several proposals a day, where authors often estimate their sales in the tens of thousands/millions, so we thought it would be helpful to have some info there for them to see what sales more usually are.
Are we doing something wrong here?
if you made it clearer what the benefit is...if their goal is to have a copy of their book in their hand...
Sure. I think we do that throughout the user manual, too verbose certainly, it's probably clearer for authors who actually come to us where we give them more specific info, but we don't publish books unless we believe we can get them out there. At least as far as the info goes. We do a lot on social networking on most imprints, we get the info out to all the trade worldwide, we promote every title, etc. if an author just wants a few printed copies they can give to their family, fine, that's not a market we're in, we don't want to publish them.
You're tarring all authors with the same subsidy brush
It's never actually been an issue, when it comes to selling them.
There are some we won't take to Waterstones, B&N, whoever, because we know there's no point. There isn't a good enough track record of sales. As far as shops, and readers, go, I don't think there's ever been an instance of "this is a subsidized book, we're not going to stock it/buy it".
"I see a bigger problem with paying big selling authors more and low-selling authors not at all"
me too.
But we're likely to get worse...we're figuring on putting in a 25% starting royalty on print books for authors we reckon are likely to sell well (and our royalties are on the income we receive,nothing deducted), alongside the 50% on ebooks that everyone gets.
Long term, I don't think it's reasonable to say to the authors who sell well "you're not hurting, you get a decent royalty, sorry we can't put it up more because we've got to fund low-selling authors". Which seems to be what you're suggesting.
And we need to look at something an earlier post here said, at a no-cost solution, but that's going to involve less work - like ebooks only, or limited distribution. it is simply difficult to make books available worldwide, through many distributors, at the right quality, print and digital, and market them,if the author doesn't already have a track record - we try hard enough, know enough about the problems.
there's a limited pot, we keep our own "publisher costs" down to under 10% of revenues, everything else goes into the books. Question is, how to spread the money around, in paying better selling authors more (whether that's in advances, or more marketing, or higher royalties) or only taking a chance on a few new authors.
You did. Stop trying to suggest a publisher does something they don't
hey, all I did, was click on the tab below, Pro Editing Services, on the website home page, it doesn't say anything about this is a service provided by a different company. I didn't say that their site says that authors have to buy their services. I just said that, given how many copies they sell through the trade, that's probably where they're making their income from.
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i don't mean to criticize Adventure Books, looks like a really good outfit. I'm just saying that we try a heck of a lot harder in selling books, and like them, we get some support on some titles from authors for pre-print costs. But we're categorized very differently, as far as the Preditors%Editors website goes.
i'ld be amazed if they hadn't made 1000 units during the 30 years not covered by the spreadsheet data
Of course. The point of that illustration (the sales figures) is not to show what the average Man Booker prize winner sells, it's to show what the average title sells if it doesn't become a Booker price winner. Which is the reality for 99.9% of fiction titles published.
sure; we should update it. We will. Sorry about that. I guess average sales 4 years on are going to be lower. It's just an indication, along the lines of "not every book sells 10,000 copies". It's industry figures. We get several proposals a day, where authors often estimate their sales in the tens of thousands/millions, so we thought it would be helpful to have some info there for them to see what sales more usually are.
Are we doing something wrong here?
if you made it clearer what the benefit is...if their goal is to have a copy of their book in their hand...
Sure. I think we do that throughout the user manual, too verbose certainly, it's probably clearer for authors who actually come to us where we give them more specific info, but we don't publish books unless we believe we can get them out there. At least as far as the info goes. We do a lot on social networking on most imprints, we get the info out to all the trade worldwide, we promote every title, etc. if an author just wants a few printed copies they can give to their family, fine, that's not a market we're in, we don't want to publish them.
You're tarring all authors with the same subsidy brush
It's never actually been an issue, when it comes to selling them.
There are some we won't take to Waterstones, B&N, whoever, because we know there's no point. There isn't a good enough track record of sales. As far as shops, and readers, go, I don't think there's ever been an instance of "this is a subsidized book, we're not going to stock it/buy it".
"I see a bigger problem with paying big selling authors more and low-selling authors not at all"
me too.
But we're likely to get worse...we're figuring on putting in a 25% starting royalty on print books for authors we reckon are likely to sell well (and our royalties are on the income we receive,nothing deducted), alongside the 50% on ebooks that everyone gets.
Long term, I don't think it's reasonable to say to the authors who sell well "you're not hurting, you get a decent royalty, sorry we can't put it up more because we've got to fund low-selling authors". Which seems to be what you're suggesting.
And we need to look at something an earlier post here said, at a no-cost solution, but that's going to involve less work - like ebooks only, or limited distribution. it is simply difficult to make books available worldwide, through many distributors, at the right quality, print and digital, and market them,if the author doesn't already have a track record - we try hard enough, know enough about the problems.
there's a limited pot, we keep our own "publisher costs" down to under 10% of revenues, everything else goes into the books. Question is, how to spread the money around, in paying better selling authors more (whether that's in advances, or more marketing, or higher royalties) or only taking a chance on a few new authors.
You did. Stop trying to suggest a publisher does something they don't
hey, all I did, was click on the tab below, Pro Editing Services, on the website home page, it doesn't say anything about this is a service provided by a different company. I didn't say that their site says that authors have to buy their services. I just said that, given how many copies they sell through the trade, that's probably where they're making their income from.
Home
Young Writers Project
Auburn Good Old Days
D.B. Cooper Info Page
The Staff
About Us - AB Slideshow
Links and Friends
AB Interviews and Videos
AB News and Updates
Pro Editing Services
Purchase Titles @ Amazon
Titles for Kindle Reader
Press and Media Info
Bookstore/Library Info
Photo Gallery
The Sci-Fi Gift Shop
Escape Velocity Magazine
Geoff Nelder's Page
Book Submissions
House Rules
i don't mean to criticize Adventure Books, looks like a really good outfit. I'm just saying that we try a heck of a lot harder in selling books, and like them, we get some support on some titles from authors for pre-print costs. But we're categorized very differently, as far as the Preditors%Editors website goes.
i'ld be amazed if they hadn't made 1000 units during the 30 years not covered by the spreadsheet data
Of course. The point of that illustration (the sales figures) is not to show what the average Man Booker prize winner sells, it's to show what the average title sells if it doesn't become a Booker price winner. Which is the reality for 99.9% of fiction titles published.