Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Noir then, Noir now

From: Allan Guthrie (allan@allanguthrie.co.uk)
Date: 25 Jun 2009

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    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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