7500 copies shipped of a Canadian novel used to be considered almost bestseller status many years ago. And yes, my gross generalizations really refer to books published by a US (genre) publisher for North American distribution.
I do not have hard numbers on the average midlist novel's life -- but I think it's actually longer than it used to be in the 80's. Books don't seem to go out of print as quickly as they did before, and whether this is due to more organized warehousing, or the Big Book Stores that require a huge amount of backlist (as opposed to frontlist) -- which would make sense to me -- I'm not sure. I think it's a good thing, obviously, because it happens far less often that book one of a series is out of print while book 2 and 3 are still in the pipeline, which means that the sales of book 2 or 3 don't immediately wither and die.
And the numbers used there were entirely theoretical, and a midlist mass market can frequently see print runs of 9,000 copies in this day and age (in the US, for North American distribution). More titles, fewer books of each title -- same old story =/. I generally tend to use round numbers as examples because it's easier. That print run will, of course, be shipped out and returns will be factored in.
I know that my West novels have against all odds been kept in print (they're kind of... huge) since, ummm, 1998, I think (they're all upstairs, where people are sleeping, and I'm downstairs), in mass market. It is easier to keep trade paperbacks in print because the cost of doing a small run per unit produced vs. the retail price (and therefore publisher margin) is better than it is for a small run of mass markets (where the unit cost is measured in thousands).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-10-20 03:19 am (UTC)I do not have hard numbers on the average midlist novel's life -- but I think it's actually longer than it used to be in the 80's. Books don't seem to go out of print as quickly as they did before, and whether this is due to more organized warehousing, or the Big Book Stores that require a huge amount of backlist (as opposed to frontlist) -- which would make sense to me -- I'm not sure. I think it's a good thing, obviously, because it happens far less often that book one of a series is out of print while book 2 and 3 are still in the pipeline, which means that the sales of book 2 or 3 don't immediately wither and die.
And the numbers used there were entirely theoretical, and a midlist mass market can frequently see print runs of 9,000 copies in this day and age (in the US, for North American distribution). More titles, fewer books of each title -- same old story =/. I generally tend to use round numbers as examples because it's easier. That print run will, of course, be shipped out and returns will be factored in.
I know that my West novels have against all odds been kept in print (they're kind of... huge) since, ummm, 1998, I think (they're all upstairs, where people are sleeping, and I'm downstairs), in mass market. It is easier to keep trade paperbacks in print because the cost of doing a small run per unit produced vs. the retail price (and therefore publisher margin) is better than it is for a small run of mass markets (where the unit cost is measured in thousands).