More Publishing Mysteries Revealed!

The exquisite Anna Genoese, whose journal you should be reading if you have any interest in publishing (ANY interest: writer, editor, publisher, etc.), recently posted her second item--this time she talks hardcovers--in a series wherein she demystifies the process of how publishers determine advances and then how books make money. (Read about part 1--paperbacks--here)

Again, Anna spells things out in a simple enough way to make the process almost sensible. Well, understandable for sure; publishing may never seem sensible. I won't clip as much from her this time as I did last, but there were a few interesting tidbits:

(No one cares about amazon.com, because that’s less than 5% of the market anyway.)

I'm sure this surprises many people. Since you can 'see' how well your book is doing on Amazon minute to minute, it must be important, right? In my opinion, in the long run, Amazon and online markets will be very important, but right now, they just don't make up much of the total share. And therefore, big publishers can ignore them. This may come back to bite them.

(FYI, Amazon uses Baker & Taylor [one of the biggest book distributors around] out here on the East Coast as their warehouse, so they're savings costs by leasing space instead of owning; side note: libraries have a discount at B&T, but can actually save more money by going to Amazon and for East Coast libraries it won't affect the amount of time it takes to get books...of course they're unprocessed [no bar codes, no hardbacks for paperbacks, etc.] so it may not be all that cost-effective)

And in case you missed it, Anna describes how much retailers (typically) pay for the books they buy from publishers:

Everyone gets a 50% discount off the [hard cover's] cover price
Everyone, to be fair, gets a discount of 50% off the [mass market's] cover price
Everyone gets a 50% discount on the trade paperback's cover price

That's how Amazon offers it's low prices, that's how B&N can offer you 40% off the bestsellers, and that's also how libraries get typically a 20% discount off cover price (and sometimes more) from places like B&T. Makes that $7.99 and $8.99 mass-market price even more angering, eh?

And lastly, I want to clip a bit from Anna where she talks about what releasing a mass-market edition of this hardcover did to the profits:

The publisher had a basic expenditure of $41,057 on the paperback, hoping that the mass market would be a sleeper hit the way the hardcover was, and that maybe they'd be able to make back some of their lost cash.

No way! The publisher earns back ($3.50 * 10,000 =) $35,000

$35,000
- $41,057 (publisher expenditure)
- $5,600 (author earned royalty)
= - $11,657 (total publisher un-profit)

Sucktastic. The paperback actually sucked profit out of the hardcover! That means it was a waste of resources.

This is not unusual, but at the same time, not typical. A mass-market (or trade paperback) follow-up to a hardcover release typically is done to continue to earn money. Publishers don't necessarily release multiple editions of a book out of altruistic reasons. It is a business, after all. Hardcovers make the best money for the publisher, but normally you don't sell as many copies of the hardcover as you do of a paper edition. This is simple economics. If you offer the product with the same content but different exteriors for the following prices: $30, $15, and $8, you will sell more copies of the cheapest version almost every time.

There are weirdos out there (like me) who want to buy series in the same format as the first one that was bought. For example, Jeff Ford's Well-Built City trilogy was published in mass-market editions for the first two books: THE PHYSIOGNOMY and MEMORANDA. The third book--THE BEYOND--was only published as a trade paperback. Every time I look at these on the shelf they irritate me. Not the contents, mind you; these books are brilliant. But the physical objects themselves. Grr! to the publishers! Why couldn't we do all three books in the same format? Sure, most people don't care...ok, we can stop there. I'm obsessing.

But good news:

My trilogy of SF/F/H novels, sometimes refered to as The Well-Built City Trilogy or The Cley Trilogy, consisting of The Physiognomy, Memoranda, & The Beyond will be reprinted by Golden Gryphon Press starting, I believe, in 07.

And even better:

Just found out the other day that John Picacio will be doing the covers for the three books in the Well-Built City Trilogy from Golden Gryphon.

So I will be able to finally get those books in a consistent format. (rubs hands together...thinks of over-crowded storage closet and full bookshelves at home...remembers '2007'...thinks of moving before then to a bigger place...remembers moving...needs to get back to work; man this is starting to read like Greg van Eekhout)

Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede, Anna Genoese, Jeffrey Ford, publishing

I Am a Happy Boy

Why am I happy? Well, I'm sitting here at my computer desk at home listening to the dulcet tones of the Food Network in the background while I post something to my blog. It's true.

I have television and the Internet in my new place now. I am very happy.

If only I could get rid of the last few things (some shelves that other people want) the new place would be completely set up and I could post the before and after photos of the move.

Nonetheless, I am happy to say that none of this happiness is due to Verizon, who wanted me to reinstall the drivers for my Ethernet card. My box of software is buried in the storage closet, and I don't even know if I still have the disk for a piece of hardware I bought seven years ago. I didn't like this response as the next step in getting connected.

Particularly when the error message I was getting from my modem was the username and/or password was incorrect. Couldn't they just reset my password? At least, that's what I thought after I hung up the phone in disgust. (trust me, it would be easier to BUY a new a computer than find the damn disk in the storage closet) I called back, and one of the options was to reset my password.

It took some doing, but I finally convinced the woman at the call center to JUST RESET MY PASSWORD and not walk me through the whole 'let me test your line...' 'what operating system are you running?' 'let's try X'.

Just reset the frigging thing.

And you know what? After she did, it worked like a charm.

Ah, Internet, how would I live without you?

SLIGHT UPDATE: The GIGANTIC Jack Daniel's I poured myself also makes me a happy boy, but that's a different story.

Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede

Welcome to Time, Jeff Ford

Please note: That is not Mr. Ford on the cover of Time.

Time Magazine has a quick article about 5 mystery writers worth investigating and Mr. Jeff Ford is one of them. I love the subtitle of the article:

Hammett and Chandler are dead, but there's plenty of new blood in the genre.

I wonder what Jeff thinks of being called new blood? :)

Always excited when writers I like (both in print and in person) to get good press and more exposure. Um, exposure in a good way, not in a "I'm sorry officer" type way. Also nice to have authors who appeared in Electric Velocipede get some press in places that lots of people read..

This is the second person I know personally who was mentioned in Time.

Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede, Jeffrey Ford

If I Take a Kill Fee, Does That Make Me an Assassin?

There's been some small hubbub about a story that Jim Grimsley had sold to Asimov's editor Shelia Williams that was subsequently killed by Asimov's publisher. In Grimsley's own words (on the Asimov's discussion board):

The story's protagonist is a person with known genetic tendencies toward child abuse, at a time when these can be firmly predicted. The story is being killed due to the child abuse content... I'm not posting this here to start a discussion about this action since I'm not likely to hang around for it. But this forum is a convenient way of letting other Asimovs writers know that this has happened.

There's been some interesting commentary about this by way of Andrew Wheeler, Nick Mamatas, and John Scalzi.

John, coming from the world of professional, freelance, nonfiction writing says:

One can argue that Asimov's shouldn't have bought a story they decided not to run, but as I noted earlier, this sort of thing happens all the time all over publishing for all sorts of reasons.

More saliently, John points out:

Look, people, take kill fee money. It's free money. It's money for a story you can still sell for the first time. Are people in science fiction not aware of the kill fee concept or something? I won't gainsay Mr. Grimley's reasons for not taking the money, but for the rest of you, understand that a kill fee isn't pity money, it's money to compensate you for your time, effort and the loss of putative professional advantages of having your story appear in a particular forum (in this case, Asimov's). The Asimov's editor offering the kill fee wasn't being nice, she was being professional. Good on her.

I have to agree. I understand the feeling of being slapped in the face to first be excited at a sale to Asimov's only to be told there isn't a sale. And I know that the short-fiction is not what is used to be and any sale is good or great and to lose it just, well, just sucks. But you have to take the money. The kill-fee process exists so that the writer can continue to afford to write while looking for another market for the original piece.
Nick, being churlish as always, asks:

What kind of hothouse flowers is Asimov's publisher really worried about? Who the hell reads this magazine? (Well, looking at the circ figures, fewer and fewer people...)

How do you think people reacted to Jim's news? Well, Andy informs us:

The villagers, meanwhile, are assembling in that discussion thread (on the Asimov's message board, no less -- it's a good thing I enjoy cheap irony [LOL-ed.]), shaking their pitchforks and rakes and threatening to a) burn the evil Baron out of his castle, b) never ever submit any more stories to Asimov's, or c) cancel their subscriptions. A few brave souls have pointed out that deliberately killing one of the few SF magazines left (and one of the only markets in the first place for a story like this) is remarkably stupid, but the villagers seem more content to rant and cuss; if a thing is not perfect, then it must be torn down to the ground. (And some of them are now refusing to have anything to do with F&SF, simply because its editor, Gordon Van Gelder, tried to inject some words of reason.)

Sigh. Get off your fucking high horse people. You can't complain about the genre and then take steps to kill it. Sheesh. Time, Newsweek, CNN, etc. probably kill more stories every day than Asimov's ever will in the entirety of its existence. Andy agrees:

And, of course, this is exactly the most constructive thing they could be doing, in a world where the major SF magazines have been taking double-digit hits in circulation nearly every year of the past twenty. Yes, let's hurry the death of short SF, so all of these actual writers, wanna-be writers, have-been writers and indeterminately-being writers can be kicked in the tuchus and forced to find something else to do with their time.

And I'll add this. Having worked for Asimov's back in my youth, I can tell you that its publisher is the conservative sort. I used to hear complaints around the office about the 'racy' artwork that Asimov's used for its stories. What people don't understand is that as you get bigger, and become more of the market share, there are more people watching you. This makes a lot of people nervous that they're being watched.

Nervous...and careful.

You worked hard to get your share of the marketplace, and you want to keep it. You're afraid to lose it. You'll do whatever it takes to keep it, even if it's the opposite of what you did to get there in the first place (e.g., you published all sorts of cutting edge books that got you a lot of attention, now that you're bigger, you publish big, thick, marketable books that sell lots of copies, maybe a cutting-edge book now and again, but it makes you uncomfortable).

Seth Godin, on his amazing marketing blog, says exactly the same thing:

As the stakes get higher, it's easy to play it safer. And when you play it safe, more often than not, the very plight you were seeking to avoid becomes more likely.

While I'm sure that Shelia is far from plotting the demise of Asimov's (she does earn her salary there) I also know that if your publisher tells you to do something, you do it. It's not like Shelia is publishing a small zine out of her pocket like I am where you have a very small share of the market and you can publish something like Grimsley's "Wendy" or Jay Caselberg's "A Taste for Flowers" and not get lambasted for it. In fact, you may even get lauded for it.

Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede, Jim Grimsley

Update RE: Moving

Well, we moved. Mostly. All the big stuff has made it to our new home. Most of the little stuff. Except stupid things like shoes. And dish detergent. And our plants. And I'm sure something we'll need tonight.

Phones are coming soon.

The internet, coming by the 21st. Yikes! No home internet service for another ten days almost. Hopefully I can make it that long! Hopefully we have the house set up by then so that I can get to a computer.

I should take photos of the boxes in our living room. If it wasn't so annoying it would probably be stunning.

Thanks to Minz, Craig E., Bill Shunn, Laura Chavoen, Sondi, and Hanley who was out on the East Coast from MT to visit Minz on vacation. What a way to spend your vacation...lugging boxes of some guy you don't know.

At least the kitchen is half unpacked so we can eat....

Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede

Sorry for the silence

And it's likely to continue. I'll be moving over the weekend to a place that has two bedrooms (one for me and my wife, one for the baby, everyone's happy) and I don't know when I'll get Internet service set up again.

I'll be able to check stuff some from work, but that's limited. No posting to speak of unless I get super inspired by some topic.

Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede

L-O-G-O-R-R-H-E-A

Tonight, ABC is televising the championship rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Scripps spelling bee was the competition at the hub of the brilliant documentary Spellbound.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, in case you forgot, I'm editing an anthology of stories based on spelling-bee winning words. The anthology will have work from people like Michael Moorcock, Kelly Link, Jeff VanderMeer, Alex Irvine, Lucius Shepard, and many many more. The anthology is title: Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories, and coincidentally, the winning word from Spellbound?

Why, logorrhea of course!

Tags: Science Fiction, Electric Velocipede, Spelling Bee