It's long been an industry truism that 85% of the profit comes from 15% of
the books. You make your profit from the blockbusters. Without 'big books'
you go bust. Books that sell moderately don't tend to make money and
publishing is (usually) a business. It used to be the case that moderate
sales were okay, since moderate sales of an original title might be around
10,000 copies. But very few books sell 10,000 copies now. 'Moderate' is more
like 2000-3000 copies. So many publishers are reaching for blockbuster
qualities just to create previously moderate sales...
Just my interpretation, of course.
Al
----- Original Message -----
From: "jacquesdebierue" <jacquesdebierue@yahoo.com>
> Some of the trouble with the industry is that they're looking to have
> blockbusters as opposed to selling a lot of different stuff in moderate
> quantities. You can make a profit that way, just like you can make a
> profit by spending five million (not two hundred) on a movie and making
> 15%. It's three quarters of a million. But the idea of the blockbuster is
> everywhere.
>
> Best,
>
> mrt
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