well-temperedforum.groupee.net The Well-Tempered Forum Off Key How rude is it to ask someone about their print run?Page 1 2
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Minor Deity |
Don't know if this has changed since I lived there, but in Israel asking "personal questions" is a way of life - comparing raises, weight, how many children the other has (and WHY!? with suggestions on how one might change the figure), age, rent cost, etc. This is the kind of thing that simply floored new immigrants especially those coming from English/German speaking countries (="Yekkes" in slang). Cross-cultural psychology (including psychopathology) has always been one of my fascinations so this was to have been a most probable basis of my dissertation. For now, I'll just mention it as a topic giving you all something to think about - that what's considered private varies culturally by quite a lot. In the US a current controversy is whether potential employers have the right to ask an interviewee's former salary (and how to handle the inquiry). As one might expect, female prospects' salaries are considerably lower in all fields. This is self-perpetuating, and has a good bit to do with women's discomfort overall in handling confrontation and self-advocacy. Likewise, asking for raises. It's up in the air whether this will become a legal issue - whether interviewers may be forbidden to make such inquiries.
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
Thank you!!! (I'll start basking when it's actually submitted!  Thanks for sharing more about your experience. Yeah, you don't know what you don't know. And sometimes, the pros or insiders (in your case, your editor or other folks at the publishers) are so "in" their field, they don't realize or know what to tell those of us who are totally new to it.
That's such an awesome story!!! 
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| knitterati Beatification Candidate  |
Wish I’d known all this last year when I wrote my book, Pique! First time author, new publishing company (mine is the 2nd book; the owner of the company has 2 other books published by a mainstream publisher, and her 3rd book was the first for this company). I have learned so much in the process. Who is doing the publicity? Me! Does the company do any? Not really. Hmmm. On the other hand, this gave me a great opportunity to have a book to give me credibility. My advance wasn’t huge (this is not JF’s “silly money”) but it was enough that I was happy to have a book in my name and some pocket money. Yarn companies gave me yarn support, so I didn’t have to buy yarn for the designs. Oooh, wouldn’t “piano support” be fun? I found the people to do the blurbs for the jacket (no agents here). I’ll be interested to get my first accounting from the publisher, to get an idea if I’ll ever earn past my advance. Congrats, SK! And thanks for a very interesting topic. I was wondering why it felt so weird when Mr. AM’s ex-boss asked me about my initial print run. Now I know.
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity |
Thank you, you as well!
It is interesting, so many details that you just never think about unless you're on the other side!
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| Minor Deity |
Fun to read about all the authors in our midst, new and long-time celebrities! Congratulations to you all - and yes, what a fascinating topic.
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| Newbie |
Proud of you. | |||
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity |
Frycek, 
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Minor Deity |
Yes, it's a personal question, although I could certainly see asking it during the kind of conversation one has at a bar at a writer's conference, when everybody is trying to figure out to what degree their publishers are scr*wing them. Even so, I would not necessarily believe what I was told. Someone in a position to know once gave me some insider scoop about one of the writers who was touting the brave new world of self-publishing the most loudly, including dollar amounts he made while traditionally published compared to dollar amounts he was making on his own. She said that these claims could not possibly be true, and that they didn't even make mathematical sense. So let the reader beware. P*D mentioned ebook sales as a complicating factor. This is even more true, from where I sit, for audiobook sales, which are reported to me in a lump sum with no information on per-listen royalties. Because of these non-paper formats, print runs mean a lot less than they used to. Print-on-demand technology is another complicating factor. My previous publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, had an unusual business model. They kept the first print run lean, estimating pretty accurately what would sell during the release, then meeting later demand by continuously printing enough books on demand to keep warehouses stocked, doing it in small bursts that they didn't consider "printings." Neither I nor they got rich, but this method has kept all of the books in print in paperback for nearly twenty years, with royalties on the first books still coming in after all this time. My new publisher, Sourcebooks, followed a similar model for the last couple of Faye books. It remains to be seen how printings for the new series will work. The first one will be out in June, and the reviews will be coming in any day now, so I should find out soon. As for academic books, Bloomsbury seems to be planning the usual short academic print run for the upcoming Agatha Christie book. At $150 a pop for the hardcover, it's probably mostly going to sell to academic libraries, and Bloomsbury knows how many of those there are. There is, though, the complicating factor of Christie's massive popularity. Some collectors and nonacademic libraries will buy it, even at that price, so it will sell better than many academic books. I feel pretty confident that there will be a paperback at a friendlier price point, and it will presumably sell to Christie fans. I would expect a good-for-academia print run for that one. If Bloomsbury is smart, they'll release it at Christmastime and market it as a gift for Christie-lovers with the same tagline that Collins used to market her books when she was alive: "A Christie for Christmas!" | |||
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity |
Mary Anna, thanks for sharing these comments! The audio book thing is frustrating! They (whoever they is, the Borg maybe?) should know how many audio books are downloaded. Phooey! Another interesting (i.e. frustrating) thing about Japanese books: I can buy physical books from Japan, usually I buy from Amazon Japan, but there are a few big sites that will ship to the US. Sometimes a Japanese-language book will also be available from US-Amazon's site. But I can't buy a Kindle book from Amazon Japan while being physically in the US (unless I set up ... what would it be, not a VPN but some kind of stealth thing that made it look like I was in Japan, well, and I'd have to have a Japanese CC, which I no longer do).
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well-temperedforum.groupee.net The Well-Tempered Forum Off Key How rude is it to ask someone about their print run?