Daniel's book - Sold Out

[*TT*]

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Nope I think I grasped it pretty well and it's horse [censored]. How does the price of a book affect how many orders will be placed.

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Mason is understandably concerned with revenue, which is some function of the number of orders times the price.

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Actually, no. It is pretty clear he is trying to say that you should double the sales figures for the 2+2 books to compare it to Negreanu's book sales figure. Which is nonsense, a book does not sell twice as many copies just because it is half the price.

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You still don't get it, Mason was showing that in order to equal the same net revenue (since the book is 1/2 the price) Daniel's book would have to sell for 2x the amount. The $14.95 price point is rather new to the poker book world, until a few years ago the cheapest book was usually priced around $20.95, with most costing in the $30 realm. The average consumer tends to buy the more cost effective product (in this case a book) and celebrity endorsement (in this case Daniel) is also a major decision factor when consumers make retail purchases. If you factor this in, Daniel's book sales to date may actually be telling us what many already suspect - the bubble is in the process of bursting. Conversely Harington's stellar sales show us that a fantastic poker book with a premium price will outsell a lower priced poker book with celebrity endorsement.

As Daniel pointed out his next book should be the measuring stick; and I think we all, including Mason, hope he is right. But if it is as great as we all hope it will be, then he would have made more money publishing with 2+2's significantly better royalty payments [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Lets face it, nobody pays authors better than 2+2 - and along with that premium comes Mason and David's tough standards on what they are willing to publish - you wont find that anywhere else.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Mason Malmuth]

Lower priced books tend to sell at higher rates.

MM

[Mason Malmuth]

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The average consumer tends to buy the more cost effective product (in this case a book) and celebrity endorsement (in this case Daniel) is also a major decision factor when consumers make retail purchases. If you factor this in, Daniel's book sales to date may actually be telling us what many already suspect - the bubble is in the process of bursting. Conversely Harington's stellar sales show us that a fantastic poker book with a premium price will outsell a lower priced poker book with celebrity endorsement.

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Hi TT:

I don't see it that way. I think what it is telling us, which is consistent with our philosophy, that books which don't do very much to help improve your game, don't do very well.

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As Daniel pointed out his next book should be the measuring stick; and I think we all, including Mason, hope he is right. But if it is as great as we all hope it will be, then he would have made more money publishing with 2+2's significantly better royalty payments Lets face it, nobody pays authors better than 2+2 - and along with that premium comes Mason and David's tough standards on what they are willing to publish - you wont find that anywhere else.

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We would like to see a good book too. One of the reasons for this is that we believe that good books, even if we don't publish them, actually help the sales of our books since it encourages the buyer to come back and purchase more. We also feel the opposite is true of bad books.

As for Daniel getting higher royalties with us, and making a lot more money, I don't know what his deal is with his publisher, but I suspect that my three to five times more statement would probably hold true in his case assuming he could make it through our tougher standards.

By the way, these standards are very real. Right at the moment we are holding up publication of two manuscripts since we are requiring the authors to make improvements.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Mason Malmuth]

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Also since they pay Harrington high royalties is there any more revenue coming from the extra $15.

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This is an interesting question and I don't completely know the answer and what I will say here may be somewhat inaccurate. But Two Plus Two is a completely independent publisher while Daniel's publisher appears to be a subsidiary of another publisher. Thus our revenue stream is much higher which allows us to share more with our authors.


MM

[Mason Malmuth]

Hi amplify:

Just a small correction, but books are sold to book stores at wholesale prices which in our case usually mean 50 percent off. So there is not an extra $15 in revenue, it's more like $7.50. But yes, it is a big difference.

Best wishes,
Mason

[onoble]

I think Dan Harrington qualfies as a celebrity endorsement.

[Grasshopp3r]

Incrementally, higher priced books are more profitable as the costs to print and distribute are largely the same, regardless of the price. That being said, I do hope that DN's book is well received as that helps poker in general.

[Mason Malmuth]

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Incrementally, higher priced books are more profitable as the costs to print and distribute are largely the same, regardless of the price.

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That's not true in our case. We insist that our books be top notch in all aspects to reflect the $30 retail price. This means that we use beter quality paper than anyone else in our field and now do a higher quality binding (including PUR glue which I don't believe any other poker book publsiher uses), so our print costs are easily double what some of our competitors are. In addition, because our books weigh more, again this has something to do with the paper we use, our shipping costs are higher. So your statement is not accurate.

Best wishes,
Mason

[Mason Malmuth]

HI onoble:

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think Dan Harrington qualfies as a celebrity endorsement.

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This is a point that Dan, Bill, and myself have had much conversation on, and this conversation began before Volume I was finished. While it's certainly nice that Dan had a lot of great positive publicity, the main driver of his book sales has been the fact that the Harrington series is extremely good. The market is too competitive now for poorly done books to have much long term success. Any famous celebrity author, and this includes Negreanu, who doesn't understand this will discover that long term success will not be available. If you have any doubt, again go to Amazon and start looking at sales ranks.

Best wishes,
Mason

[*TT*]

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I think Dan Harrington qualfies as a celebrity endorsement.

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For most of us here at 2+2 I would agree. To the average schlub looking to buy a book to learn how to play poker, Daniel's name is worth his weight in gold theoretically. Harington's celebrity would not be as big a factor as it would be for Daniel. But as Mason already pointed out, book reviews and peer acceptance - the quality of the finished book - far outweighs other factors in the long run.