Authors and Self-Publishing

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi Banana:

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Roughly how big are your initial print runs for a book? For example is the first printing kept small to test the market, with a large second second printing or is the first printing quite big to reduce the marginal cost of each book?

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Up to 50,000 which is a very large amount. We do it to reduce our unit cost per book, but if we can't project these type of sales, we will go with a lower number and sometimes that number is much lower (and sometimes our projections can be quite off, especially as the market changes).

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Are the print run sizes the same for all titles or do you adapt it for each particular title?

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We adapt. At this time print runs can be as low as 5,000 and when we did the second printing of Harrington II we ran 100,000 (which was our largest run ever).

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When would you decide to reprint a book? i.e does it have to sell a certain % of it's run within a maximum time scale to considered?

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A rough guideline is when we have about a three month supply left and we still feel that there is some interest in the book. However, we try to print books together when possible to reduce costs, so this can cause us to get away from the three month guideline.

Best wishes,
Mason

[*TT*]

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Mason,

Roughly how big are your initial print runs for a book? For example is the first printing kept small to test the market, with a large second second printing or is the first printing quite big to reduce the marginal cost of each book?

Are the print run sizes the same for all titles or do you adapt it for each particular title?

When would you decide to reprint a book? i.e does it have to sell a certain % of it's run within a maximum time scale to considered?

I've always been interested in publishing and have read a couple of books on the subject, but am curious how it works in the real world.

Thanks,

D.

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DB - where do you live? Have you ever considered a publishing career?

[dirty banana2007]

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DB - where do you live? Have you ever considered a publishing career?

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Hi whiney*TT*,

I love books, i spend more of my time on this part of the forum rather than the limit/sng/mtt sections that i should be on reading and improving my game.
[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I currently live in London. I have always thought about working in the publishing industry, with dreams of perhaps one day running my own business.

Unfortunately i never tried to get my foot in the door. I didnt get outstanding results at uni, and the competition to get jobs in publishing can be ultra fierce (i'm not a natural networker which made it even harder for me). I suppose i also allowed myself to be convinced upon leaving university that there wasnt much of a future either as salaries appeared really low for jobs that i saw advertised (and the number of competing applicants high) and with the decline in small bookshops and the growth of big retailers / supermarkets butchering the range and quality of books available in the stores, and often not willing to see what smaller publishers have to offer.

I am still only 32 so i guess its never too late to get in, but i imagine it gets harder the older you are...

It's funny, but reading this thread and writing this post has rekindled my interest in getting into the industry. ( i remember about five years ago trying to think of a way books could be printed onsite in bookshops to save on shelf space and widen the choice available!). I have been thinking of a career change for a while, perhaps i should be brave enough to follow my heart for once...

Any advice you can give on getting into publishing i would be grateful.

Thanks,

DB.

[*TT*]

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[quote

DB - where do you live? Have you ever considered a publishing career?

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Any advice you can give on getting into publishing i would be grateful.

Thanks,

DB.

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I know much more about magazines than I do about book publishing. Magazines require aggressive self-marketers, bootstraping staff that create a new product month after month. University is less important than relationships and the ability to get the job done for many publishers in some career roles, I don't think its too late at all because at your age work experience just barely trumps education.

Since your interested in self publishing you might enjoy the custom divisions of the bigger publishing houses in the UK, my favorite one is John Brown - which one does custom titles for clients who wish to is a magazine / book to represent their brand. John Brown did the Nike magazine, Ikea's magazine, and countless others.

Good luck, and remember its never too late!

[Cactus Jack]

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It's funny, but reading this thread and writing this post has rekindled my interest in getting into the <publishing> industry.

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Everytime I feel like writing again, I go lie down and wait for the feeling to pass.

[MRBAA]

It's Saturday, 10/6/07, and I just checked Amazon sales for The Ultimate Guide to Poker Tells --

product Details

Paperback: 197 pages
Publisher: Triumph Books (April 10, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 157243807X
ISBN-13: 978-1572438071
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: based on 7 reviews. (Write a review.)
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,867 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#39 in Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Card Games > Poker
#59 in Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Gambling

While we're not in 2+2's league, this is not "very poor" for a book that's been out over a year and also has strong bookstore distribution.

[chicagoY]

I know a little bit about this, a 300 page book could be distributed for between 6 and 8 bucks a copy (honestly).

[Johnny Hughes]

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All your numbers are wrong.

MM

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50 per cent of nothing equals nothing. So does 60 per cent of nothing. Go with the big boys if you get a chance.

[Johnny Hughes]

If you look in the gaming section of Barnes/Noble, TwoPlusTwo and Cardoza are very dominent. Self-publishing won't touch that.

[*TT*]

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If you look in the gaming section of Barnes/Noble, TwoPlusTwo and Cardoza are very dominent. Self-publishing won't touch that.

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Correction - Cardoza WAS dominant. I don't see their product nearly as much as I used to in NY, LA, NJ or Phoenix.