On April 14th, 1993, in the feverish atmosphere of half-time in a packed Chicago Bulls’ stadium, a 23-year old local man called Don Calhoun was pulled from the crowd. The challenge he was set was to attempt a shot at the basket from over 75 feet. It was a three-quarter court shot and felt to be almost impossible, particularly for an amateur, randomly chosen from the audience. The prize for making it was a cheque for $1 million.
Contests such as this were common at the time and were insured by promotions companies. According to a senior executive in the industry, “the perfect contest was like the most tempting carnival game: just feasible enough to make people think they can do it but actually extremely difficult”.
Anyone who has investigated the economics of publishing, as either a prospective author or publisher, will be familiar with this sentiment. It can be a challenging industry to make money from. It can feel like standing in front of a fairground shack, throwing everything you have at a coconut.
It doesn’t help that these economics are highly complex and endlessly variable. Each genre, from literary fiction and illustrated children’s books to academic publishing and poetry, has its own models; within that, each publisher will have their own approach, areas on which they spend more or spend less. And, within that, each book will be different. No attempt can be made to speak ex cathedra on this subject. Somebody will always do things differently.
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Whole books could be written on this subject, and these books would be important, valuable and could change aspects of the industry. But would they sell in large numbers? That is really the heart of it.
However, notwithstanding the caveats above, there are some relatively universal constants. In the spirit of attempting to demystify this particularly opaque side of the industry, let’s explore two of the most frequently asked questions: firstly, why do books cost what they cost?; and, secondly, how much money will an author make?
To try and answer both those questions at once, we might take a sample book and dissect it as best we can. The largest category of the Irish publishing market is nonfiction and, within that, it is history and biography, so this is where we will turn.
So, our notional book is an Irish nonfiction title, 300 pages in length. There is no colour plate section but there is an index. The publisher and author have debated going down the traditional route of releasing in hardback first and then moving to paperback, but it’s been decided that, having requested print quotes for various quantities, hardback would push the retail price higher than either the publisher or the bookshops believed would work for the intended readership. The author has a track record of previously published books; she avoids social media but initial media interest is likely and there is a good marketing plan in place. The decision is to print in paperback and the print run is 3,000 copies. The retail price is set at €20.
In order to get a sense of why this retail price is set, we can work backwards and look at where that €20 goes.
Firstly, 50 per cent of this will go to the bookshops. If this seems high, it’s worth remembering that the bookshops need to have a high-street presence and everything that goes with that, like bricks-and-mortar rent, staff, utilities and commercial rates. Bookshops have never been accused of making too much money and this is not an oversight. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Amazon has the buying power to demand higher discounts than bookshops, without the talented staff, proximity or tax obligations. Support your local bookshop.
So, from the €10 per book remaining, €2.50 is spent on sales and distribution, the process of informing, championing and physically delivering every book to potentially every bookshop around the country. That leaves €7.50 per book.
From the €7.50, the print cost per book is €2, leaving €5.50. The copyediting, proofreading and indexing costs come to €1.50 per book, leaving €4. The cover design and internal layout come to €1 per book, leaving €3.
Of the remaining revenue, €1 is allocated to the roles of the commissioning editor, the editorial assistant, the marketing and publicity people – and of course the finance person who helped calculate all of these costs, paid all of these invoices and, critically, processed the author royalty payments. That leaves €2.
The author royalty was agreed at 10 per cent of net receipts, which means the amount the publisher receives after bookshop discounts but before any other costs. In this case, the publisher receives €10 so the author royalty is €1 per book. And the remaining €1 is the profit to the publisher.
And so to our second question: how much did the author make? In the end, this book sells 2,500 copies and the author’s print royalties are €2,500.
However, she is invited to speak on various panels and festivals, which these days regularly come with a fee. She is shortlisted for a number of small awards and one prestigious award in Canada, which surprises everyone – except those who have read the book, because she writes beautifully.
And while the market for our notional book is simply the size that it is, as the sales showed, its relative success means she is approached by another publisher to write a book with an international focus. During the meeting they reflect on the fact that the Irish book market, while vibrant, is roughly the same size as the Manchester book market. This strikes a chord with the author as her grandparents were from Manchester. This book is published and sells closer to 25,000 copies and Spanish and Italian translation rights are sold. The author receives 60 per cent of the international rights fee. The French publishers debate it but ultimately decline. C’est la vie.
This author may not exist but her story does. Some authors make money from their writing and some don’t. Some create careers out of their books, some create books out of their careers. Authors are often necessarily supported in their work by the Arts Council of Ireland, the Heritage Council, Culture Ireland, as well as through their royalties. And there are countless examples of Irish authors achieving great success, both critical and commercial, with their Irish publishers.
It is perhaps worth bearing in mind two last points.
Firstly, two of the lowest selling genres are poetry and academic publishing. And it is these genres that are most likely to produce a book that changes the world.
While publishing sits at the conjuncture of art and commerce, and books that sell are the things that make the author and publisher money, there are nuances and there are surprises and there are wildly different definitions of what success is. It might feel like a carnival game, and it is certainly not simple, but the difference is that both you and your publisher are on the same side of the shack, standing side by side, throwing everything both of you have at those coconuts.
And lastly, to Don Calhoun, our basketball fan pulled from the crowd. Obviously he made the shot. Anything is possible.
Ronan Colgan is chairing an Irish Writers Handbook panel at 11am on November 9th at The Printworks, Dublin Castle, as part of the Dublin Book Festival
