It figures, maybe

Yesterday’s blog drew some comment on the blog and on FaceBook. Again, I emphasise that the statistics are not mine, but gleaned from a newspaper’s graphic. And the argument is against the big publishers, not the independents.

In my library I have a book printed in 1980, long before e-books, and it gives a breakdown on where the money went on a hardback novel then.  It makes interesting reading, even now.

 

 

BRITAIN

Author – 10%

Text printing and paper – 5.6%
Jacket printing and paper – 1.8%
Binding and freight – 2.6%
Bookseller – 41%
Publisher’s overheads – 20.6%
Publisher’s profit – 9.2%
Composition and plate making – 8.6%
Jacket design and artwork - .6%
 
USA

Author – 10%

Text printing and paper – 3.7%
Jacket printing and paper – 1.5%
Binding and freight – 4.7%
Bookseller – 47%
Publisher’s overheads – 23.9%
Publisher’s profit – 1.3%
Composition and plate making – 6.7%
Jacket design and artwork - 1.2%

The differences are accounted for, apparently, as the example is based on a print run of 5,000. The ‘British market is smaller; a sale of 5,000 copies in Britain is above average; in the US it is close to the norm.’

- Novels and Novelists, Editor Martin Seymour-Smith, 1980.

Now, I’ll just look at the British figures, as if enlightened by the e-book arrival:

Sure, figures have probably altered over 34 years – though not in the authors’ favour. And who said publishers react quickly? As John D MacDonald said, ‘If you would be thrilled by the galloping advance of a glacier, then you’d be ecstatic watching changes in publishing.' They were late to grasp the e-book nettle and then discovered they could profit hugely...

 

Anyway, back to the chase. If we exclude all the print associated overheads (say, 39.2%), we arrive at 60.8% of the cover price. So, at a rough-and-ready estimate, the e-book cover price should be at least 39% less than the print version. I suspect that is not the case for new e-books coming from the big 5 (or however few are left after the latest amalgamation, conglomeration, takeover).

 
Author – 10%
Bookseller – 41%
Publisher’s profit – 9.2%
Jacket design and artwork - .6%
Total percentage of cover price = 60.8%

[All of the following are probably associated with a print version, not e-book]
Publisher’s overheads – 20.6%
Text printing and paper – 5.6%
Jacket printing and paper – 1.8%
Binding and freight – 2.6%
Composition and plate making – 8.6%
Total percentage in this group – 39.2%
 
Mark Twain had something to say about statistics. I’m sure he had a view on percentages, as well. Even so, it’s plain as a pikestaff, to use an out-dated cliché, that certain publishers are attempting a form of profiteering where e-books are concerned.

(The earlier mid-16^th century phrase was ‘plain as a packstaff’, which alluded to the staff on which a pedlar carried his pack, which was in plain view. Amphitryon, III, Dryden.)

Tomorrow, back to a non-controversial subject, perhaps…