Hi Bob;
Thank you for a wonderful anwer to my question. I am very grateful for
your long and detailed answer. While I still don't quite understand the
degree of book price inflation, I now have very much better understanding
of the entire process. I too am a book lover and purchase a considerable
number every year. At present my house contains about 8500 books and
periodicals of which at least 5,000 are directly related to my hobbies. My
study where I am composting this reply contains about 3500 books alone.
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
John
>Hi John,
> One speaks (writes) in haste and repents at leisure.
> Having been with a small publishing firm of specialty books for a
>number of years, I am sensitised to the "why does it cost so much
>question." I apologise for an inconsiderate reply to a sincere question.
> Unfortunately for those of us who love books and buy a lot of them,
>things one would take to be economies are not necessarily so for the
>small publisher. More on the big guys, who are different, follows later.
> There really aren't any significant savings with modern processes. The
>state of the art is not very different from 40 years ago. Careful
>editing is not done on the screen--it's still done by having the
>manuscript read by an editor, author revisions made, fact-checking done
>by someone else, then having the manuscript typeset.
> Galleys are then read by the editor and anyone one else he/she can get
>to read them. They then go back to the author for corrections. The thing
>to remember is that few books are written by real pros. Most books are
>written by someone who has a story to tell, but who is expert in his
>field of study, not necessarily a writer.
> We have recently had postings about a book (name forgotten) that was
>said to be an encyclopedia of the automobile. A number of listers noted
>errors of fact in the text. Sounds to me as though the editing was
>hurried, and the fact-checking was incomplete. This is all labor cost.
> It was always my experience that when the paper industry was in a slump
>the prices of book paper went up because the paper companies needed the
>cash. Then, when they returned to their usual incredible wait-time for a
>stock item, the prices went up again because of supply and demand. One
>would have to ask Mr. SD Warren, or Mr Scott, or Mr. International Paper
>how that could be so. I know that I read about prices of newsprint
>falling and felt that the liquid used in its processing was crocodile
>tears, at the very same time the prices of book papers just kept
>increasing. A small book publisher reads about the competition, but he
>does not experience its benefits.
> You're quite right, there is no economy of scale for the publisher who
>does a run of 3000 -10,000 copies. It's just not there.
> A couple of major costs for the publisher are the book clubs and the
>book stores. The cost of the author, unless he is a big name, is known.
>Generally, an author earns 10% of the price the publisher sells the book
>for. Stephen King gets a better deal. On the other hand, the publisher
>can pretty well estimate the number of copies King is likely to sell.
>The first, second, third-time author is not a sure bet for the publisher.
> Publisher has to front the money for all costs, internal, and all
>production costs, external, before a book leaves the warehouse.
> If he is dealing with a book club, such as BOMC, he sells the book at
>pennies over production cost. Book Club may demand the right to inspect
>the invoices from suppliers. A sale to a Club is, fortunately, a one-way
>sale. The books are not returnable to the publisher for refund or credit
>if they don't sell. However, if the Book CLub doesn't move them, the
>club will remainder their unsold copies at 10-25 cents, and kill the
>publisher's slow-but-steady market. That is known as the Back List, the
>titles that just keep on selling regularly. (what one dreams of....)
>The benefit to getting in bed with a book club is that they take a
>significant portion of the press run, and that does get the economy of
>scale of, say, a 5000 run vs a 3000 run. Not large numbers. It's a
>stressful decision, let me assure you.
> The regular bookstore is your outlet for "trade" sales. Bookstores
>expect a 40% discount from cover price, and full rights to return unsold
>copies for credit or refund. To get to them, the publisher does his
>advertising and has commissioned book reps out in the field calling on
>the bookstores. Hardly efficient, but books by unknown authors are sold
>be feel, touch and gut-reaction of the bookstore buyer. The bookstore
>can't make an impulse sale without a book on the shelf--an unsold book
>may return to the publisher for any reason. Oh, by the way, if the dust
>jacket is torn in the bookstore, it is expected that the publisher will
>send a new one. More frequent than a request for a new jacket, though, is
>an unauthorised return of a book with a request for its replacement with
>one that has a new jacket. Postage paid by publisher. So, for a trade
>publisher, almost every title is a gamble. The $15 cover price book may
>cost $3 in direct manufacturing costs, plus editorial, plus consultant,
>plus overhead, and it goes out the door at 40% of the $15. Not a great
>margin for a speculative venture.
> The textbook business is something else, agreed. When did you ever in
>your entire education get to the end, the "current information" part of a
>text? How often is an assigned text "revised" and repriced? I worked my
>way through college. More recently, I paid for books for two daughters
>who went to school in New England. Neither ever bought a used book--this
>year's edition was "the" edition for the course. Their "rapidly evolving"
> undergraduate programs? Marketing and Elementary Education. I agree
>with you that a book that will be "obsolete" in twelve months hardly
>requires a last-forever stitch and bind job. Knowing the trade book
>business, it's hard for me to understand the greed (what a harsh word) in
>the text market.
> You noted the expensive coffee table books. Beats me how they can be
>produced as they are and sold, except that they are on the remainder
>table the day after publication. They all seem to have a lot of pictures
>and little text, and that is scarcely edited, and they are published in
>Singapore. We never found that we could get the quality we wanted at any
>savings by going out of the USA, and the hassles of different time zones
>and ocean shipping are huge. I don't know how they do it, unless,
>perhaps, they have an international market that is broader than ours.
> The publishing biz is consolidating at a rapid rate. The small
>publishing house has never been a good example in an MBA's studies. As
>they consolidate, they do get economies of overhead, and some economies
>of paper purchasing. Alas, they tend to be less adventuresome with
>respect to publication of an unknown. Look in the Atlantic Monthly, or
>the NY Times Book Review to note the decline in the number of publishing
>houses in the last decade. I think that's sad. However, the large
>publisher can better afford the risk of producing 20,000 copies. He may
>well have his own ad agency in house and his own staff of sales reps. He
>may have the ability to get TV, movie, video, etc etc rights ad infinitum
>and in all parts of the known universe. The small publisher who puts
>together books on MGs, or boats, or light airplanes is not likely to see
>a movie follow the book. (Lassie...OK)
> How does a reader value a book? We have all paid $50 for the MGB
>workshop manual in one edition or another. I doubt that any royalties
>are paid for this. Once it was printed, it became a back list book, a
>steady source of revenue for Bentley, one hopes. IT seems like a lot of
>$$ for a book. On the other hand, how much useful information does one
>get from it? Immeasurable, I would say. Could this be distributed on
>CD? Certainly, and the cost of production and distribution would be much
>less. One can argue about the utility of a computer in the workshop, but
>the information could be presented just that well. A $20 hardcover
>novel may tell a good story that could be skimmed in 2.5 hours. Suppose,
>though, that it is savored, and passages are re-read because they are
>meaningful and sound so good as they pass the mind's ear. If the book is
>then a five hour read, it cost $4.00 per hour, at a time when a movie,
>around here is $7.50 for a one-time experience. To me, the book wins
>that comparison. I once tried taking a laptop out to the back porch to
>read. What a miserable experience that was.
> But I confess-- I love books. I'm surrounded by them. They are on every
>horizontal surface in this house. Probably the best way in which to be
>transported from this vale of tears would be to be reading in a chair
>next to the bookshelf and to have it fall over and crush oneself
>instantly. Perhaps it could be an MG book that was being read at the
>time.
> So, thanks for asking a question that is increasingly important in an
>electronic age.
>Bob
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