And when it comes time to make an offer on the next book, one of two things will happen. The first: the publisher will make an offer that is significantly less than the offer they made for the previous book(s); the second, that they will decline to make an offer at all.
The interesting part for me is that the author who sells 16,000 hardcovers out of a 50,000 printing would be in worse shape, career-wise, than one who sold 10,000 out 12,500 hardcovers.
Now, I certainly wouldn't expect the publisher to treat the next book as if it were just as valuable as they thought the one that failed would be. But that they might figure the author that got 10,000 readers was worth another chance, while the author that got 16,000 isn't -- that suggests the publisher does have a lot of faith in the ability of promotion to sell books. Not the whole of the game, but a significant part of it. Which is not unfair of them. ;)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-06 11:34 am (UTC)The interesting part for me is that the author who sells 16,000 hardcovers out of a 50,000 printing would be in worse shape, career-wise, than one who sold 10,000 out 12,500 hardcovers.
Now, I certainly wouldn't expect the publisher to treat the next book as if it were just as valuable as they thought the one that failed would be. But that they might figure the author that got 10,000 readers was worth another chance, while the author that got 16,000 isn't -- that suggests the publisher does have a lot of faith in the ability of promotion to sell books. Not the whole of the game, but a significant part of it. Which is not unfair of them. ;)