How fiction paperbacks lose or make money

Livejournaller and Tor employee Anna Louise has posted a brilliant, engrossing exposition on the economics of fiction publishing -- how a publisher makes or loses money on a book. It uses real numbers from real books to illustrate in painstaking depth how marketing, printing, and preparation costs interact with margins from different retailers and wholesalers to make or break a book. I think that every writer alive (myself included) harbors some cherished illusions about how publishing works. This lucid, entertaining and vivid portrait of the inside workings of a fiction publisher is an excellent way to disabuse yourself of them.

Book #1 is a mass market romance novel called Crichton is an Idiot by a brand new author named Aeryn Sun. She doesn't know anyone, and no one's heard of her. You, her loving and caring editor, call in every single favor you've got, but no one has time. You do not take this as a bad sign that no one really likes the book at all, but you take everyone at their word. (This is your mistake. Although, of course, you've already bought the book -- there's not much you can do at this point.) Your closest friend, an author who sometimes hits the Waldenbooks Top 20 Romance List, gives Aeryn a pity blurb.

"Crichton is an Idiot is a romp through a crazy alternate reality!" --nationally bestselling author Buffy Summers

At the meetings, people shake their heads and sigh, but you are an obnoxious editor who loves your book. You bother people enough until your publisher gives you a full page 4/c (four color -- aka full color) ad in Romantic Times BookClub Magazine, and puts four other small books in the ad, so the price gets split. You bug more people, and you get 4/c bound galleys and a mailing to a couple of independent bookstores and a bookmark for the author to hand out.

The publisher tells you to get some in house reads, because she isn't sure this is a wise use of resources -- without blurbs, you're going to have a hard time. Plus, you're on your second cover -- the art department just can't get it right. You spent $4,500 hiring an artist. Now the art director is working on the cover himself, using stock art. You still have to pay for stock art -- it costs $1,400.

Link (via Copyfight)