Publishing for Profit: Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers
400
Publishing for Profit: Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers
400eBookFifth Edition, Fifth edition (Fifth Edition, Fifth edition)
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Overview
In this revised and updated fourth edition of the industry bible Publishing for Profit, author Thomas Woll lays out a complete guide for navigating every aspect of the business, from editorial developments, production, marketing, and electronic publishing to operations, financial, and personnel management. This practical, comprehensive reference also includes:
An in-depth examination of digital business models, e-book, and print on demand (POD)
Strategies for creating new revenue streams through online sales and marketing
Updated industry statistics and benchmark figures
Sample forms, charts, and contracts
Publishing for Profit clearly outlines effective business strategies so publishing professionals new and old will be able to do what they do best-focus on producing quality books while maintaining a profitable, effective, and efficient enterprise.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781613749760 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Chicago Review Press, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 400 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Publishing for Profit
Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers
By Thomas Woll
Chicago Review Press Incorporated
Copyright © 2014 Cross River Publishing Consultants, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61374-976-0
CHAPTER 1
C3 Commitment, Consistency, Credibility
Before a publishing company can begin, three critical tenets must be accepted. If you adhere to all three, you will be well on your way to success. Without any one, your publishing efforts will most likely fail. These three critical factors are what I call "C3" — cubed because credibility, which results from merging the attributes of commitment with those of consistency, is significantly more meaningful and important to a publisher than simply being a product of the first two. When a publisher is credible it can do and achieve infinitely more than if it is just consistent in its activities or committed to a goal. Yet without consistency or commitment, credibility is impossible.
Let's look at these tenets individually.
Commitment
Before beginning any publishing venture, you must be committed to seeing it through some very rough times, from start-up through continual daily crises. You must initially be committed to
• funding the enterprise yourself or through loans;
• developing your editorial concept and niche or fulfilling your organizational mission;
• progressing on a regular schedule;
• producing quality products that your target audience wants at a price it can afford;
• marketing your product and getting the word out about it;
• excellent fulfillment and customer service.
Commitment applies to many factors you will face. And many will probably think you should be committed as well!
Consistency
Whether you plan on being a trade, professional, direct response, academic, or religious publisher, whether for profit or not-for -profit, consistency is critical. Each type of publishing runs on a seasonal basis, which you as a publisher must recognize and adhere to if you want to be a successful member of that community. It does no good to try to bring out books at a time when they are not needed or when they are least likely to succeed. This is true whether you are a trade publisher getting books out in time for Christmas or an academic publishing house getting books out in time for the coming school year.
Whatever your market, you must make sure your program runs on a consistent schedule so everyone involved knows what is coming and when it is coming. Your company must acquire books consistently, and they must be produced on a regular schedule that meets the needs of your vendors and your customers. There must be a consistency to the commitment, especially on the part of management, who is responsible for funding the program. Without consistency, chaos results too easily.
Without consistency, chaos results too easily.
Many publishers ask how many books are necessary to ensure their success in the marketplace. They wonder, "Is there a critical mass of books that must be published to ensure their recognition and sale within the market?" The answer to this question is simple. It's not the number of new books you publish that's important, but the quality and consistency with which they are published. That's the key! If your budget limits you to only two books per year, that's fine, as long as you continue to publish at least that number each year. That way your reps, distributors, wholesale buyers, and retail buyers begin to know you — and begin to understand your publishing program. If you can publish two books a year well, and do so on time, providing all the support needed to make each book visible and achieve solid sell-through via your chosen sales channel, then you will, through consistency, become credible.
Credibility
This trait is the result of successfully coalescing the first two factors. Credibility is the necessary ingredient large and small publishers strive for, but it is highly elusive. It can be defined concisely as doing what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it. It implies being honest, open, and just in your dealings with people.
One reason credibility is so elusive in the publishing process is because events always seem to conspire to prevent completing projects on time. You may, if you are under-capitalized (i.e., if you haven't made a great enough financial commitment), be unable to produce your book because the printer wants money up front. You may find your authors don't deliver their manuscripts on time, jeopardizing your entire program. You may well find that your printer puts you on press last, because you are a new account, and a small one at that. You may have an interview or autographing party set up and the author's plane may be delayed. These are only a few of the reasons that your credibility can be hurt, and over which you have little or no control.
It's not the number of new books you publish that's important, but the quality and consistency with which they are published.
Credibility is a fragile trait that is built over time but it is one you ultimately must have to be successful. To be credible, you must focus on commitment and consistency. With these two under your belt, credibility will be achieved.
CHAPTER 2The Publishing Environment
To see just how interrelated commitment, consistency, and credibility are, you need to understand the publishing environment in which every publisher functions.
Graphically, the progression of any book flows as follows:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In its simplest definition, the essence of the book publishing process is to create a profit by disseminating information. The idea is to create books that will flow smoothly from the author directly, or for the author through the publisher, through each of a number of intermediary organizations, and ultimately into the hands of the consumer. The flow may be direct or it may get highly circuitous. For instance books may flow:
• directly from the publisher to the consumer via direct response means, including website and Internet sales
• from the publisher to the retailer and then to the consumer
• from the publisher through the distributor, to the wholesaler, to the retail account, and then on to the consumer
There are many other routes as well, and many that are in operation at the same time, including from the author directly to the consumer via the Internet or to and through an online retailer such as Amazon. Each of the organizations in the delivery chain has its own needs and its own timing demands. Thus, you as the publisher may want to publish a particular book as quickly as you can to minimize the time your cash is being tied up. You may think that the quicker you can edit and produce a book, the quicker you will generate cash and profitability. Unfortunately, this is not true most of the time. Why? Because each of the other organizations in the route to the consumer has its own time constraints and organizational needs that you must adhere to if your book is to make its way down the road in an orderly fashion.
Because of the sheer volume of books published each year, every organization has to impose order on the flow of books to make sure it can handle the volume successfully and at a profit.
Let's see how this process impacts you as the publisher.
The major organizations within the publishing environment are commonly defined by their functions:
AUTHOR: The person who creates the original concept of the book and whose name usually, but not always, appears on the book. It may, for instance, be ghostwritten, or it may be a work-for-hire, in which case the author's name may not appear. Remember: every norm has an exception to it. One of the greatest changes in the industry that has occurred since the last edition of this book is the legitimization of the author as self-publisher and the publisher as a fee-for-service entity. Throughout most of the twentieth century, authors who self-published were viewed as somewhat inferior to authors accepted for publication by "legitimate" publishers. Publishers who offered their services to publish authors for a fee were considered vanity presses. This stigma has largely disappeared as the ability of authors to self -publish has become easy, and the success of some of those authors has given them credibility and financial independence on better terms than those they might get by going through a regular publisher.
PUBLISHER: The company that acquires or creates an informational product (book, audiotape, video, digital output, etc.) from the author or creator and sells that product through a variety of means (direct response, sales representatives, distributor, wholesaler, or some other way) to a customer (whether wholesaler, retailer, or consumer). The publisher can add value to the author's work by editing, designing, producing, and selling the work. Or it may buy the completed work from an outside packager or another publisher and simply sell the work.
DISTRIBUTOR: An organization that takes books from a publisher, warehouses those books, either physically or digitally, and sells them to wholesalers, retailers, libraries, and consumers. Distributors also accept and process returns from their accounts and forward those returns to the responsible publisher. Distributors can and do perform other tasks for publishers (for example, publicity, telemarketing, and special sales), but their primary function is warehousing, selling, and order fulfillment. Distributors contract with publishers and charge them a fee for providing services to the publisher. Distributors are different from wholesalers in that distributors don't purchase inventory from their publishers but hold it on consignment or as an agent of the publisher.
Many smaller publishers store their books at the distributor and use distributors to help sell their books. These publishers find that the distributor's ability to consolidate a number of publishers within one sales catalog and presentation, and to have their books be part of shipments containing a variety of books that help the retail and wholesale accounts achieve higher discounts, ultimately aids their sales efforts. In addition, most publishers find the regular payment schedules from distributors to be an excellent way to maintain cash flow while avoiding the risk of bad debt and the difficulties of trying to collect accounts receivable money from a significant number of accounts. Many smaller publishers find the distributor's fees, usually totaling around 30 to 35% of net sales, prohibitive.
Among the major distributors today are Publishers Group West, National Book Network, Independent Publishers Group, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, Midpoint Trade Books, and Ingram Publishers Services.
WHOLESALERS: These accounts purchase books from both publishers and distributors for sale to other accounts, primarily retailers, libraries, businesses, Internet bookstores, and others. Wholesalers provide a service to publishers and distributors because the wholesaler actually buys books and fulfills its own orders. For many retail accounts, the wholesaler provides a "one -stop shop" from which the retailer can buy the books of many publishers at once.
Often, an account can purchase books from a wholesaler at more favorable discounts than it might if it bought directly from the publisher or distributor because orders for many books from many publishers can be consolidated by using a wholesaler. Ingram Book Company is the largest book wholesaler in the country, followed by Baker & Taylor.
RETAIL ACCOUNTS: These stores, both brick-and-mortar and Internet, purchase books from publishers, distributors, and wholesalers. Their ultimate purpose is to sell books to the general public. Retail accounts can be very small independent bookstores, huge superstore chains such as Barnes & Noble, mammoth Internet stores such as Amazon, or something in the middle. (See Book Sales by Channel on page 12.)
LIBRARIES: Publicly and privately funded organizations that provide books free or for a fee to the public or their members. Books are loaned or rented for specific periods of time and returned to the library for subsequent loan or rental. Libraries purchase both directly from publishers, and indirectly through wholesalers and/or distributors. Most e-book rentals are provided to libraries by OverDrive, an intermediary between the publisher and the library.
BOOK CLUBS: Direct response membership organizations that buy books directly from the publisher at deep discounts, or that print their own editions of a publisher's book for sale to their members, usually at a discount to the suggested retail price. Book clubs provide a "one-stop shop" for books of similar interest. For a publisher, book club sales almost always supplement wholesale, retail, and library sales. Regrettably, book clubs of this kind have been in decline for many years. Note that this type of "book club" is different and distinct from the group of like-minded readers who get together to discuss books.
WAREHOUSE CLUBS: "Membership" organizations that sell to "members" at significant discounts. Warehouse clubs make their money by selling vast quantities of merchandise, including books. Clubs purchase from a variety of sources, including directly from the publisher. Warehouse clubs are high-volume and high-risk because publishers can be hit with enormous returns very quickly.
DISCOUNTERS AND MASS MERCHANTS: Traditional retail stores that sell to the public at a discount, such as Walmart, Target, and others. These accounts are serviced primarily by independent distributors (IDs). Among the major distributors are Readerlink Distribution Services and Anderson Merchandisers.
Discounters and mass merchants sell a limited number of books, primarily bestsellers, usually at some discount to the retail price. Again, they make their money by selling books in volume. Like warehouse clubs, there can be problems for publishers with returns here as well.
NONTRADITIONAL ACCOUNTS: All "non-trade" retail accounts that are not one of the above. These include gift stores, toy stores, educational supply stores, catalogues, direct sales companies, and more.
The 2013 US Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors Annual Review, commissioned by Bowker and Publishers Weekly, gives a good idea of where adult books are currently selling. Of the total books sold in 2012, the following channels of distribution accounted for the shares noted (percentages have been rounded):
Books Sales by Channel (Units), 2012
E-Commerce 42%
Bookstore Chains 15%
Mass Merchandisers 6%
Independent Bookstores 6%
Book Clubs 5%
Used Stores 5%
Warehouse Clubs 5%
Nontraditional Bookstores 3%
Religious Bookstores 3%
Supermarkets 2%
Other Direct-to-Consumer 1%
All Other 7%
Whatever statistical base you choose to look at, today's bookselling environment is undergoing rapid change — change that you, as a publisher, must understand; change to which you must respond.
Like most other industries, bookstores, book clubs, and other organizations that cater to the needs of the consuming public exist in a seasonal environment. Seasons directly impact the public's buying patterns. The Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday period is, for most retailers, the busiest time of the year. In some cases it accounts for two-thirds of the year's revenue. Other holidays and seasonal events throughout the year also generate sales, especially Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Back to School promotions.
Today's bookselling environment is undergoing rapid change — change that you, as a publisher, must understand; change to which you must respond.
Thus, retail accounts and other accounts selling to the public typically promote their products to take advantage of these strong selling seasons. Book publishing is no different. Bookstores, both physical and online, are constantly looking for ways to tie books to various promotional events and sell more books because of their marketing efforts.
If publishers are going to ensure that sales efforts reach their greatest potential, then publishers must fully understand, and work within, the retail cycle. This means that to get books to wholesalers and retailers on time, the publisher must work far enough in advance to be certain that a book's publication coincides with the needs of the marketplace, whether wholesale or retail — hopefully both.
How do publishers do this? How far in advance is it necessary to start? Keep in mind that the two key bookstore chains purchase books seven months in advance — so you need selling materials at that point or you'll lose those sales.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Publishing for Profit by Thomas Woll. Copyright © 2014 Cross River Publishing Consultants, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Chicago Review Press Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
List of Tables and Forms,Foreword,
Preface to the Fifth Edition,
Acknowledgments,
Introduction,
I. The World of Publishing,
1. C3 — Commitment, Consistency, Credibility,
2. The Publishing Environment,
II. Managerial Organization: Strategy and Techniques,
3. Define Your Niche,
4. Make Planning Primary,
5. Keep Your Staff Lean (But Not Necessarily Mean),
6. Protect Your Assets,
III. Functional Organization: Strategy and Techniques,
7. The Editorial Process/Content Management,
8. Production and Manufacturing,
9. Sales ... and More Sales,
10. Subsidiary Rights,
11. Direct Response Marketing: Internet 101,
12. Operations, Fulfillment, and Accounting,
13. Electronic Publishing and Marketing,
14. Returns,
Conclusion,
Appendix,
Index,
What People are Saying About This
No matter what your size, Publishing for Profit is an essential tool for growing your business. The book is about as close to an operations manual for a book publishing company as can be found. (Dominique Raccah, president, Sourcebooks, from the foreword)
Publishing for Profit was immensely useful in helping me understand some of the subtler business challenges of a small press. . . . Your advice is practical and immediately applicable. (Perry Donham, president, KidPub Press)