How we prey on authors - confession publisher

Preamble

I was inspired to write this short note by the article " How much does a writer earn and how to send intermediaries to the tundra ." For me, it turned out to be a little unexpected that the material, relevant at first glance, only among authors, publishers and booksellers - that is, an audience of primarily humanitarian nature - caused a large number of responses on a resource that carries such a pronounced man-made character. On the other hand, programming is perhaps the most humanitarian of all technical disciplines, so I hope this text will also seem interesting to readers.

Repentance

First of all, I would like to admit that in recent years I have been working as a commercial director of a small book publishing company that has published books on IT, and therefore it is doomed to participate in this dispute from the other side of the barricades. Simply put, I am a representative of those very intermediaries, world-eaters, bloodsuckers, who are passionately hated by the authors and the readers can not stand. Before the wave of well-deserved people's anger covers me headlong, I would like to explain in a farewell note to explain how we, the publishers, came to life as much as we drink the blood of Christian babies earn money on the authors, how the book market generally runs, where the world is heading what are the tendencies of its development and - most importantly - where to go to the author, who does not want to endure a more publishing yoke. Yes, exactly! .. Authors and their sympathizers under Habrakat are expected to receive very specific recommendations on this issue! ..

So, I will begin my speech in the same place where my counterpart began his exposures, namely, in a conditional bookstore, holding a conditional book for 100 rubles, trying to calculate the future profits of the author and superprofit publishers. Account in mind - especially when you need to take into account taxes, deductions and other boring things - is not the easiest or fascinating activity, because it is not surprising that at some point we get bored, put this book back on the shelf and just look around to the parties. And what will we see? ..

Part 1 - as it is

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Book Shop

Large room. Most often - light and with a good repair. With utility rooms and storerooms, with shelves, shop equipment, cash registers, computers, sometimes even with information kiosks. In the midst of all this kindness, personnel of varying degrees of utility and smile — cleaners, storekeepers, consultants, cashiers, commodity specialists ... and they are all united by the same desire ... No, not to bring good and bright things to the masses — this is by itself — but I had mind their desire to get in the end for their work deserved reward. Hand on heart, I can not blame them for this. I myself, you know, also love wages and all sorts of material goods, but this is not about now. Now we will focus on the fact that we are in a large store, the maintenance of which in a normal working state requires quite a lot of money. And this most decent money does not appear out of thin air by itself, but comes from “thick wallets” (c) of buyers, that is, they are included in the price of the goods that are sold in it.

Regardless of the size of the store, its equipment and the cost of maintaining it, you need to remember that this is the final link in the long production chain that connects the author of the book with the reader's money. Of course, if you wish, you can try to eliminate any link in this chain. However, before you begin a decisive amputation of any link, it is still better to be well aware of the consequences of our bold experiment. In the case of bookstores, I have to admit to my deep regret that it is still one of the most efficient tools for selling paper books. Even taking into account the fact that the effectiveness of this channel falls, and will fall in the foreseeable future, the situation with bookstores is very simple. If you plan to make a lot of money on books - they should be in stores. Moreover:

• Books should be well laid out on the shelves. Yes, merchandising is relevant here. That mayonnaise in a supermarket, that a bestseller in a bookstore - any product needs a correct and effective display. As a rule, the representative of the publishing house is responsible for this;
• store personnel must be prepared for the sales of this particular book. Yes, for consultants and commodity researchers, too, they conduct trainings, and as a rule, representatives of the publishing house also do this;
• There should be a competent advertising campaign. Remember how actively the books of the same Rowling or Isaacson were promoted. Guess three times who pays for the development and implementation of these companies. Hint - find the publisher’s name in the book’s output, this will reduce the number of attempts to one.

Bookselling is not as simple as it seems at first glance, and definitely not the easiest from the point of view of making money. Therefore, the last thing I would like to look into the pockets of shopkeepers and tell them about the rate of return with which they are supposed to do business. The expression “100% mark-up”, which was used as a criterion for the booksellers' greed, does not seem successful to me, if only because, as a rule, the store itself does not “value” anything. In my practice, we, as publishers, independently determined the Recommended Retail Price (RRP) for each specific book - based on our vision of the market capacity for this topic in general, the solvency of its target audience and the sales prospects of a particular book in particular. Negotiations are being held with booksellers with purchasers on what kind of discount from RRP they can arrange. Most often, 50% of RRPs really make a start from the bar - but this is not a dogma. For example, we have always tried to keep within 60-70%, and usually achieved our goal. On the other hand, there were those who wanted to push through the purchase price and up to 30% of the RRP - I remember, this is how we lost one partner. In any case, a specific figure is always a matter of negotiation and mutual compromise. In determining the exact purchase price, the terms and conditions of payment, the ability to control the display of books and ensure the best shelf space, arrangements for maintaining inventory, logistics, and much more play an important role.

Can the author himself organize work on the interaction with the book trade? .. Yes, maybe, why not - not the gods are burning the pots. But I am afraid, in this case, most of his time, he will be busy precisely by burning pots, and not creating books. In any case, the book trade closes the process of moving a book from the author to the buyer. It may sound strange - but sales are a costly step, and their organization needs to lay a certain share in the cost of the book. As the author quite rightly noticed, the margin rate in trade is about the same for books and for other positions. It is not by chance that if the store owner earns on selling books less than the industry average, the store will very soon cease to exist or change its profile. That's life.

Production

Before the book becomes the subject of negotiations between the buyers of the stores and the sellers of the publishing house, it must be printed in the printing house. Most often, this really is about a volume of 3-5 thousand copies - today this is the average circulation of a new book on the market. I can not say that publishers get some special preferences in printing houses - except for printing millions of copies, but there are few such eagles, and those times are not the same. Our publishing house did receive good print prices - but not at all because we were in collusion with the book mafia, but because we constantly and closely monitored the printing market for the price level. For example:

• we regularly monitored the prices of materials in general and paper in particular, tested new and inexpensive varieties in our case - taking this opportunity, I send a ray of hate to suppliers of Chinese papers;
• they took into account what time of year it is best to place orders for production - for example, before the New Year, printing houses are loaded to capacity and “squeeze” an order will cost more. But they also have periods of reduced print volumes, when printers need a load to avoid downtime. Under this you can get additional discounts;
• the same task (sometimes they were real books, sometimes just a “conditional” layout) was given to the technologists of different printing houses to compare the price level, production time and the quality of the final product. For an objective picture, the printing houses were chosen for comparison in different regions and even countries. The process took place all the time;
• carefully controlled the entire manufacturing process, from the withdrawal of films to the gluing of finished books. In the event of any deviations from the approved layout, the issue of reprinting the edition or price reduction for the work performed could immediately arise.

In general, we were just “in the subject line”, printers respected us, and at times quietly hated us. Anything has happened - returns to the printing house, complaints, departure on weekends or late in the evening for production to control the printing, calls at an inopportune time to familiar technologists for advice in solving some sudden problems ...

Can the author independently engage in this whole process? Again - maybe why not. The world of printing is interesting and fascinating in itself, and the printing house will gladly take the job - and with special joy pay - that comes from the publisher, from the author. But from experience, not every author is willing to pay for the production of the book and control all the stages of its production. Obviously, production is a costly stage, with one of the largest investments in the chain. Typically, the cost of producing a book in a printing house is about 40% of the total project budget.

Publisher

Let us go back a little more in our product chain. Before the book gets to the printing house, it should be oversized, framed with illustrations (not always necessary, often it is expensive and time-consuming, but always improves sales), checked by proofreader, editor, ISBNs should be received for it, etc. etc. Again - all these stages can be passed by the author independently. In the end - not the gods work with InDesign. But it is better when the proofreading is done not by the author, but by another person, and a well-trained one And it is clear that a professional coder will issue a book much faster and better than an amateur who has mastered the layout at random. The need to attract specialists concerns any stage of book preparation at a publishing house. And at any of these stages - we need to pay for their work. The maker-ups want money. Artists also want, have the right. Editors, proofreaders - all these certainly holy people, in spite of all their spirituality and sublimity, also want to eat, and preferably on a regular basis.

In addition, there is still a lot of equipment in any publishing house, which also costs money, and we need technical staff who will maintain this equipment in good condition, and who also need it ... Well, you guessed it already - pay your salary on time. For example, the typical workplace of our layout maker is not the newest iMac and a bunch of Adobe software, costing just another iMac. Proofreaders are content with the Mac Mini c office suites. Editors - the same Mini, plus InDesign. Network, storage, proofreading and proofing printers. Surprisingly, I had to buy all this, for some reason no one wanted to give the technique for free, no matter how we hinted.

Conclusion - oddly enough, prepress and work with publication are also costly, especially if professionals are involved in the processes. The exact level of investment at this stage is difficult to determine at once, since most of the costs are fixed and spread over the number of book projects that are under construction. In other words - the more a publisher does books, the lower the level of editorial expenses in the budget of a particular book. It is optimal if the share of these expenses does not exceed 20% of the budget, but this figure is not a dogma and strongly depends on the specific circumstances. I draw your attention - this is not yet the publisher's earnings, it is just the cost of production.

Author

So we almost got to the beginning of the path - to the author. This is the same person who wrote all that - or almost all - that we later read in the purchased book. From the point of view of the publisher, the author is just another link in the book’s chain of movement from idea to sale in a store, and the link is also expensive. Cruel, but true. Let's try to estimate the level of costs for this link. But before that, let’s take another look at the entire path of the book’s movement from the manuscript to the reader.

The whole chain, as we have seen, is quite long - and in its entire length, we see first of all the costs. The cost of the author's fee. The cost of turning a book from a manuscript (hand on heart - sometimes very raw manuscript) into a full-fledged publication. The cost of making the book in the printing. On logistics and storage. For promotion and advertising. In the end, on sale. And only at the end of this whole process there appears something for which we all started it - the reader’s money. Failure at each stage can make it difficult or impossible to get this money. Can the participants of all these links - from the store to the editorial board - be satisfied with a fair share of all 5% of the book’s sales price, leaving the author 95% deserved by him?

Hardly. In fact, even those notorious 15% of the selling price of the publisher is probably closer to the upper bar of the publisher's financial capabilities. In addition, it is not always the case that interest is paid. For example, we accepted for ourselves the optimal payment to the author of a fixed fee immediately upon concluding a contract, regardless of the further fate of the book. The plus of this approach for a writer is that a person gets all his money right away, without waiting for the book to start selling, and sometimes even sad news about their absence. Minus - this amount, as a rule, did not exceed 10% of the RRP. On the one hand, it is possible that some of the authors have lost perspective on this. On the other hand, there were cases when the only person who earned money on a project was the author, and the publisher suffered losses. This is life, this is business, these are our risks.

To increase the author’s share in the budget structure is possible only by reducing costs at other stages - and this leads to losses in the quality of book preparation, its production and sales. You can, of course, stand in a pose and ask, why should the writer actually suffer from the appetites of other participants in the process? .. Of course, he shouldn't. But the rest are not required to suffer. Therefore, the greater the ambition of the author - the higher the likelihood that all the above steps he will have to go through on his own.

Work on the book is a serious project. The key to his success is well-coordinated teamwork of all participants, from the author to the seller in the store. If you are interested in this question, I recommend watching the best film of all times and peoples, fully revealing the essence of the modern publishing industry, namely, the 6th episode of the 23rd Simpsons season, The Book Job. Laugh laugh, but basically everything is.

What to do?

And now - the disruption of covers. In fact, there is no conflict of interest between the author and the publisher. All participants in the process - from the writer to the consultant in the trading floor of the bookstore - are primarily concerned about the money that they can earn by selling the book. Well, if not in the first, then in the second for sure. You just need to see the whole picture and understand that only the joint and professional work of all participants in the chain will allow the book to be sold to the reader. The role of the publisher is primarily to finance the entire project, in order to take all the risks on it. Risks, unlike fees, for some reason, few people like to take on themselves. I will draw a dangerous analogy - and there is probably no safe one. Suppose you are young, promising and like to play football with friends on Saturdays. If your task is to have a good time, warm up, run, talk with each other, have a beer after a match and discuss the latest news - you can stop sweating many things and just run around the field for your own pleasure. But if you are planning to make a career in a higher league team and earn a living, you obviously have to make less beer, more work, pay for training, equipment, services of doctors, specialists ... Or “sell” to a club that will take these worries and costs yourself, in exchange for making possible future profits from your own merits.

If you are a writer, and you want to be in the big leagues of this business - learn to see in the publishers not partners, but enemies. We are investing in the possible, likely commercial success of a book project. Sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes not. If we make mistakes - all the losses are on us. We do not come to take the fee from the author, do not return to the printing house already printed books in the wording "not needed", do not offer our employees to sit for a couple of months without a salary. Want to earn more? Great - start taking risks and your share of the cost. Be a publisher.

Part 2 - How can it be

Where are we going?

Everything written did not convince you; you still consider publishers an unnecessary, dead-end branch of evolution; you still want fame and money earned by writing, but without a publisher. Great, now let's tell you how to do without us. Seriously - or almost seriously.

Everything described in the first part of the article dealt primarily with the traditional, “paper” edition. But time does not stand still, and even vice versa; and who, if not the readers of Habr, know about one of the greatest inventions of mankind in the field of information dissemination since the time of Gutenberg ... No, I do not mean Vkontakte. We will talk about the so-called "e-books".

Often we hear that e-books "kill" paper and soon completely supplant them. This is certainly an exaggeration - completely, of course, will not displace. There are lots of segments where the paper book was, is and will be the main form of content delivery - for example, a children's book, primarily for the youngest. If you regularly visit bookstores, you probably noticed that every year there are more and more children's books on the shelves - well, this is no accident. On the other hand, it would be foolish to turn a blind eye to the fact that it was e-books that irrevocably changed the bookselling and publishing business in general. For the reader, this is a more convenient way to receive and consume content. For a publisher, a great way to minimize your expenses and increase your reach. For the author ... Now let's talk about the authors.

In fact, it has never been so convenient to do it yourself and publish a book like it is now. For example, instead of writing this article, I could write a book in my favorite Apple Pages. Could pick up to her illustrations on some stock images, for example iStock. And then compose the publication in the iBooks Author and publish it in iTunes, in the BookStore. Is free. Or get from the same iBooks Author publication in the epub and also distribute for free.

“Stop! ..” the attentive reader exclaims. But it was about making money on books, and what’s “free!”! Well, once asked, we’re answering.

And where is the money? ..

From this point our narrative will begin in places suspiciously to resemble the first part of the article. So, let's go again, once again, along the whole chain from the author to the grateful reader, who is ready to support the material talent of the writer.

Book Shop

Forget about the big rooms, shelved with books, shelves and utility rooms, merchandise and consultants. The staff was fired, the books were handed over to the waste paper, the racks went to the kebab, a cafe was opened in the room. Now we do all sales online. Amazon, BookStore, Ozone, Liters. You can choose your site to taste. Yes, placing a book there will require additional movements from you - but all of them are within reason and quite realistic. At least - from my bell tower publishing all the requirements seem to me quite reasonable. For example, for a commercial publication in an Apple Bookstore, you will need a sanitary minimum:

• ISBN books - which is obvious. Books, like any product, must be clearly identified. The book number is obtained without any problems;
• US TaxID - which is also obvious. It requires one short telephone conversation with the States and filling in one paper form.

Everything, now you can sell your book in one of the largest shops of the planet. This pleasure will cost you 30% of its value. Maybe this is not the desired 5% by the author - but let's immediately forget about unscientific fantasy and fairy tales for primary school age. Supporting resources at the level of Amazon or iTunes requires a very, very, very decent cost. I'm afraid a joke about 5% there may not be appreciated. In any case, 30% is definitely less than the usual bookstore margin.

Production

In this case, there is no typography, which really greatly simplifies life and reduces the cost of the process. On the other hand, the book still needs to be prepared for publication. Let us, for simplicity, put these processes in the same place as the last time - in the publishing house.

Publisher

Here begin the nuances. Proofreading and editing do not disappear anywhere - the author can still try to save money and do everything on his own, which practically guarantees the occurrence of problems with the text, or invite experts. Experts will want money, and most likely - right away. I will give the opportunity to the author to bargain with them independently about the level of payment, and with poorly concealed pleasure I will observe this from the side, having prepared myself more popcorn in advance.

The design of the book is also fraught with a lot of surprises. Of course, if the content is based on the text, then there will be no questions on the layout. And if you need illustrations - remember, they increase sales? .. - then you need to take care to ensure that they appear in the right place of the text, regardless of the orientation of the device and the display resolution. And think about how the result will be clear to the reader. Let me clarify my point: in a paper version of the book, it is easy to ensure that each page spread contains text on a given topic, illustrations to the text, necessary explanations and footnotes. This is convenient - readers appreciate it and vote for such a flow of information with a ruble. But in the e-book there are no spreads. And the logic of content delivery should be different. Have you heard of such a native Russian word like usability? It's time to attend to this issue.

In addition, it is a sin not to use the opportunities offered by the e-book. For example, interactive illustrations. You cannot download them from iStock - you need to attract a specialist. The search for the right specialist by the author of the book, setting the task, coordinating the terms of work and payment - this exciting plot will make me stock up on popcorn again for an exciting pastime. Warning questions - such opportunities are not refinement, but really strongly distinguish your book from others and significantly increase sales. You want to earn, and not just tell friends girls that you publish books? ..

But if you put aside all my gloating, then you need to recognize that yes - the author can either cope with everything on her own (if the publication is simple), or independently find performers for these works among freelancers (if there is a financial opportunity) and to become a little publisher yourself.

So all the same - where is the money?

Obviously, writing a book, preparing a publication, getting an ISBN to it and placing it in the BookStore does not really guarantee the commercial success of the enterprise. Much depends on how the author promotes the book after its publication. How many mentions is there in the press? Are there reviews and reviews - or rather, what should be done, what would they appear? Is there any advertising activity on the web? In general, in order for the sales to go after the publication, it will be necessary to make some efforts after the successful publication.

It seems to me that it is precisely in the amount of effort needed that the authors fear to independently publish their masterpieces. From a purely technical point of view, there are either no restrictions on independent work, or they are minimized. But it is always easier to blame the publisher or book network for your failure than to admit that the material was not of the best quality, the preparation was limping, and in general, something went wrong ...

And yet - this is a very real way for an author to do without the services of hated intermediaries and get himself a large part of the earnings from the sale of his creations. Another thing is that such work requires more exactingness for oneself, for one's books, and readiness to take responsibility for the result, whatever it may be.

What about piracy?

I will say terrible. Get ready to hear from the publisher two of the worst things about piracy in the book market:

1. He can not win. Content in general and books in particular are stolen, stolen and will be stolen. To the question “why?!.” The only correct answer is “because”.
2. It makes no sense to fight with him. There is a sense to fight for the fact that it would be more convenient for the reader to buy a book than to look for it on torrents. It is necessary to focus on the fact that a person would just find it, easy to buy and enjoyable to use. Then success will not take long.

Of course, do not make life easier for pirates. In my time, I myself spent a lot of time sending letters to administrators of websites where you could find some of our scanned books. Then he quit. Time, effort and money spent on such a struggle, much more efficiently used to create a new book and organize its sales. If the choice is between making the book convenient and making it easy to purchase, and between a complex protection system, drive a defense.Customer convenience is more important.

Summary

As long as there is a book market, there will be publishers. You just need to understand that the publisher as a partner of the author, is interested primarily in the monetization of the written book. And even in the market of electronic books, our services are in demand - sooner or later, a writer who wants not only to publish, but to make it a lot and earn a lot, still comes to the idea of ​​cooperation with professionals. But if you want to try yourself in this business - nothing prevents you from now to prepare and publish your first book yourself. Just do it - everyone will win. You will be able to realistically assess your strengths and abilities. Publishers will be able to see how interesting and promising your books are. Reader - can buy it.

In general, more books are good and different; and may there be power with all the players of the market - and decent fees.