The truth, the whole truth contd

I knew my attempt to provide actual information from the sharp end last week would provoke a reaction. It did, though not the one I expected.

 I thought some people might ask why small publishers do it at all, since there’s no money in it and it’s a constant struggle against the odds. And I half-thought there might be some cries of disbelief when I pointed out that 4 pence (or 4 cents) per copy profit is on the high side.

 Not so. What it did raise was questions. (Thank you, Michael. I hope you don’t mind me going public with your queries, rather than offering an inadequate response in a reply to your comment.) To be honest, trying to find workable answers to those very questions was one of the parts of the job which made me tear my hair and reach for the headache pills, and definitely one of the causes of the sense of relief that accompanied all the regrets about giving up.

 But I’ll try. Because I think people deserve honest answers to questions, and I’d like to think more people than Michael were wondering about these issues.

 OK, here goes.

 

How do you establish price?

Usually by looking at the costs, then at the rest of the market. Nothing is gained by pricing higher than the competition; pricing lower can make people wonder if the product is inferior. 

Would lowering price increase sales enough to raise your profit?

Doubtful. See above. People buy the books they want to read, not the ones that are a pound cheaper than the others. Cutting the price can act as an initial draw, but it’s a short-term strategy; if the customer doesn’t like what s/he gets, there’s no ongoing sales benefit.

 Would raising price decrease sales too much and lower profit?

Probably, especially in the market sector we were in. Since we were trying to launch authors no one had heard of yet, readers would have asked why ours were worth more than the better known ones.

 What format is most profitable and which has the smallest cost, the trade paper or mass market paperback?

It all depends how many copies you sell, or expect to sell. Copy for copy, mass market A-format costs less to produce; trade paperback brings in a slightly higher margin. But reader perception is that trade paperback is a higher quality product (usually true in terms of format, far less often in terms of content), so it attracts a different kind of reader.

 Isn't this decision one of the hardest for the publisher?

No, not really. You decide what kind of book you’re going to publish and pitch your format accordingly.

 Warehousing, paper, and shipping costs are reasons eBook supporters always cite as why an eBook should cost less than print. How does the cost of formatting and downloading compare?

Obviously they cost less – but these are a long way from the only costs incurred in producing a book. Aside from editing, cover design (an eBook still needs a cover), marketing and overheads like the day-to-day running of the office, conventional publishers pay authors advances on royalties with absolutely no guarantee that those advances are ever going to be earned back. Besides, whatever Amazon and the sensational press claim, eBooks are still a long way from replacing print books in number of sales.

 For the small press that can not afford to publish in more than one format, are eBooks the cheapest format to publish alone?

I’ve yet to see any figures that confirm this.

 Are sales for eBooks large enough to take advantage in the drop of cost?

What drop in cost? At the moment eBooks cost the same as a paperback, and I doubt this will change any time soon. This would seem to confirm that eBook sales have a long way to go before they outstrip print sales.

 Or in other words would the sales of a paperback have more sales than the e-book version so the profit at the end is higher despite the higher cost?

At the moment eBook sales of a very few titles may be higher than paperback sales, but in total eBook sales are still struggling to match those of hardback. Don’t believe everything you see in the news media!

 Give it a year or two and the picture may be very different. For the time being eReader technology has a long way to go before it settles into a sensible pattern: too many formats, too many manufacturers all pulling against each other. Competition is healthy, splitting the market in half a dozen conflicting directions is less so. And there are still plenty of us old-fashioned technophobes around; the print book isn’t going to die while I’m still alive!