How to Rationalize Buying Books and Other Interesting Facts

Now that I have finished a few books, I am back to juggling the rest of the pile around.  I have gotten back to reading Buzbee's The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop.  Did I already mention that I am enjoying this book immensely?  It is filled with all sorts of history and interesting little facts that I didn't know about books and bookstores and booksellers, as well as fun anecdotes interspersed throughout from the author's own personal experiences.  It makes for easy, enjoyable reading.  I keep turning page corners over so that I can find passages more easily, but as I am going to be returning it to the library soon I thought I might share a few passages that I just read today.  In the first he discusses the cost of books, which many consider to be expensive these days.  I know I have complained about the cost of a new hardcover, but reading this has helped me put things in perspective (in other words, helps me rationalize buying a brand new, just-published book)!

"Let's look at your $25.00 hardcover and see where the money goes.  We'll presume this is a non-best seller from a large New York imprint, a novel say, so that, except for the dust jacket, no color or other special printing is involved.  We'll give it a fairly average print run of 5,000 copies.  Percentages will vary from book to book, from publisher to publisher, but the figures below are standard enough to paint the bigger picture. 

• Author $1.88
• Printer $3.00
• Publisher $8.87
• Bookseller $11.25

The author's share of this pie seems, at first glance, ludicrously low, at least to authors.  It is the smallest piece, but the one that's most likely to go to a single person.  If the author has an agent, the agent receives between 10 and 15 percent of the author's royalties, but otherwise, the author gets to keep that buck-eighty-eight all to herself.  Most writers will receive an advance against their royalties before the book is published, an advance based on the expected sales of that book.  If you think writing will make you a millionaire, then you'd better write a book that the publisher hopes will sell over 300,000 copies.  The royalty rate for a book that sells this much will be higher than that of a 5,000-copy hardcover, about $3.13 per book.  In 2004, only 47 hardcover novels sold over 300,000 copies.  A $16.00 trade paperback has an average royalty of $2.00 per book, and in 2004 only 27 trade paperbacks, fiction and nonfiction combined, sold over 500,000 copies.  With mass-market paperbacks, the royalty is considerably lower, 42 cents on a $6.95 book, and you'd have to sell well over 2,000,000 copies to earn the fabled sum.  In 2004, only 8 mass-market paperbacks sold this much or more.  Your parents did not steer you wrong about the writing life: it's a hard way to make a living, and almost impossible to get rich."

He goes on to talk about the booksellers slice of the pie, which seems like a lot until you take in all the overhead--rent, staff, supplies--must be covered from that sum.  A new book ends up on the bookstore shelves, but might not be sold and ends up being returned to the publisher. 

"Let's imagine, sadly, that most copies of a book were returned to the publisher, and the publisher still has 3,000 of the 5,000-copy first printing.  These days, if a book doesn't sell quickly enough, it's often declared out of print by the end of its first year, lightning fast for such a slow business.  But this does not mean that the book's life in the bookstore is over.  Publishers sell the remaining stock of an out-of-print book, for pennies on the dollar, to companies that specialize in remainders.  The remaindered book reappears in the bookstore with a sticker that says 'Was $25.00 Now $6.98'.  Remainders are a boon for the bookstore because they're discounted deeply, 50 percent and above, and don't require tight inventory control.  The publishers can recoup something for no royalties are paid on remainders; however, remainders can act as an advertisement for the author's next book.  For the customer, it's gold.  The book you saw last year and really wanted but couldn't afford--here it is and less than half the original price.  Yowza!  Now you can buy more books."

See, how to rationalize buying books!  I was also interested in what he had to say about those folks that say "reading is dead". 

"But there are other figures that would argue against this claim, or at least offer some balance to it.  In 2004, American publishers produced between 135,000 and 175,000 new titles, depending on the source.  Let's settle in the middle at 150,000 new titles every year, or around 411 new titles every single day.  Each year American publishers produce 50,000 new titles more than what had been gathered in the entire nine-century history of the Great Library at Alexandria." 

If people weren't reading or at least buying, surely so many books wouldn't be published each year.  I am amazed at the number!  A few more facts: Books in Print lists nearly 4 million active titles and 1.5 million out-of-print titles.  Since 1980 over 2 million new books have been published--compare that to the 1.3 million titles published in the preceding 100 years!!  I was sort of surprised by this:

"These figures are for American publishing alone.  Americans do publish more books than any other country, but the per capita figure is surprisingly low.  Of the English-speaking nations, the United States comes in fifth, behind the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.  The United Kingdom publishes 2,336 books per person, the United States 545."

I've always fantasized about living in the UK (if even for a little while)--imagine 2,336 books just for me!  And I will leave you with one more thought.  I have always known I would never get through my TBR pile, but....

"If you read one book a week, starting at the age of 5, and live to be 80, you will have read a grand total of 3,900 books, a little over one-tenth of 1 percent of books currently  in print."

So depressing.  I'm never going to catch up now!! 

Comments

[Stephanie]

I once attended a book signing for a children's author - she only receives about 75 cents per book sold.

[tanabata]

Oh dear, that last stat really is depressing!

[john keller]

Danielle,

I like how you simplified what can be such a complicated and frustrating process.

We have a little used book program that has taught us many of the same lessons you so clearly identified.

We are working to develop a program that offers free books, for qualified organizations and an efficient tool to redistribute used books that are no longer being used.

The model is pretty simple on the macro-level: we get books, sort through them, most are made available for donation for organizations that request them, some are resold through online partners and our little storefronts and a large portion are obsolete or damaged and subsequently recycled.

We have been doing this for a year and are now trying to get things incorporated online.

Kate, we would be honored if you and other bloggers with developed opinions would look at our site. We need educated people to ask tough questions and tell other people about the program etc.

Any input, reviews, blog comments, etc. would be super appreciated and help to develop this little company. Not only that... it could be fun :)

Thanks for your time and attention. We hope to hear from you soon.

John Keller
worldwidebookdrive.org
worldbookdrive@gmail.com

[Max]

Only one tenth of all the books...and some of the ones you read will be a waste of time or not worth reading or whatever. So frsutrating! If we only have time to read one tenth of all the books, we should be able to somehow instinctively know which ones we'll enjoy most so we can read them first!

[Litlove]

Four million books? Oh Lord, and I thought I might have been making an impact. I had better make sure I am doing at least 2 books a week! And a note on academic publishing - I've published three books and my biggest advance was £200 (I got nothing for the other two). I also get royalty cheques from this book, for the immense sum of about £20 a quarter. Get rich quick? I don't think so....

[Dorothy W.]

What interesting info! I'd really like to read Buzbee's book; there's so little I know about the way book publishing works.

[Stefanie]

Wow, very interesting. The small number of books read in a lifetime makes me want to think harder about what books I choose to read.

[Lesley]

I've been wanting to read this book since seeing it on the other Lesley's blog back in the summer. Some interesting stats, there, particularly this:

In 2004, only 47 hardcover novels sold over 300,000 copies ... in 2004 only 27 trade paperbacks, fiction and nonfiction combined, sold over 500,000 copies.

Yikes! That seems so low to me.

Also, that last bit in your post about only reading 1/10 of 1 percent - that is depressing, and a bit mind-boggling!

[Matt]

Danielle, I can't wait to read it--it's also on my vacation list, along with Kleist. I hope Tuesday comes sooner! :)

[Kailana]

I think I am going to go add this book to my amazon wish list now... it sounds interesting! I meant to before, but appear to have forgotten.