And in answer to the person who asked if they produce the same number in later printings as in the first one: usually not.
::enters lecture mode::
The goal for a publisher is to do as many books in that first printing as they think they can sell. The economies of scale are such that the more you can print at once, the better--but this is offset by not wanting to have a lot of stock sitting around taking up valuable real estate (or, worse, eventually being remaindered). So they take preorders, and analyze the market and how well other books in the same category are doing, and come up with a number, X that they will print on the first go.
When a book exceeds expectations, and is continuing to sell well and the inventory is getting used up, the publisher says "Hey! Let's print more!" But again, because of that constraining factor of "we don't want inventory sitting around taking up space," the pub house will try to limit how many more copies they print at any one time. Suppose a book is expected to sell 5,000 copies in the coming year. They can do one printing of 5000 copies and have the book sitting around in inventory for a year, taking up space, gathering dust, and risking that the calculation is wrong and it will only sell 1000 copies. Or they can do a printing of 2500 copies, and re-evaluate in six months.
The cost of doing two 2500-copy printings is more than the cost of a single 5000-copy printing, but the risk/reward analysis almost always comes down on the side of shorter, but more frequent, reprintings.
In summary: if a publisher does a very short first printing and the book takes off like mad, they may go back for a huge reprint, but more usually the reprints are modest numbers, less than the initial printing. However, any reprint is fabulous news--it means the book exceeded initial expectations, and there is still plenty of demand.
When the book starts to appear on bestseller lists. A book can hit the bestseller list but still not exceed expectations. Or am I not understanding your question?
<pedant> Actually, you can also call a book a "bestseller" in the US if it sells 100,000 copies. If it makes a particular bestseller list, it gets a more specific adjective: "A Podunk Picayune Best-Seller!" </pedant>
And thank you for the lovely email (which I have not gotten around to replying to because I am a Big Loser that way). It made me feel all warm and fuzzy.
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momijizukamori
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-16 02:51 pm (UTC)And in answer to the person who asked if they produce the same number in later printings as in the first one: usually not.
::enters lecture mode::
The goal for a publisher is to do as many books in that first printing as they think they can sell. The economies of scale are such that the more you can print at once, the better--but this is offset by not wanting to have a lot of stock sitting around taking up valuable real estate (or, worse, eventually being remaindered). So they take preorders, and analyze the market and how well other books in the same category are doing, and come up with a number, X that they will print on the first go.
When a book exceeds expectations, and is continuing to sell well and the inventory is getting used up, the publisher says "Hey! Let's print more!" But again, because of that constraining factor of "we don't want inventory sitting around taking up space," the pub house will try to limit how many more copies they print at any one time. Suppose a book is expected to sell 5,000 copies in the coming year. They can do one printing of 5000 copies and have the book sitting around in inventory for a year, taking up space, gathering dust, and risking that the calculation is wrong and it will only sell 1000 copies. Or they can do a printing of 2500 copies, and re-evaluate in six months.
The cost of doing two 2500-copy printings is more than the cost of a single 5000-copy printing, but the risk/reward analysis almost always comes down on the side of shorter, but more frequent, reprintings.
In summary: if a publisher does a very short first printing and the book takes off like mad, they may go back for a huge reprint, but more usually the reprints are modest numbers, less than the initial printing. However, any reprint is fabulous news--it means the book exceeded initial expectations, and there is still plenty of demand.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-16 03:49 pm (UTC)Question though: at what point does a book move from "exceeds expectations" to "best seller" status?
Steve
no subject
Date: 2005-09-16 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-16 08:53 pm (UTC)---L.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-17 05:35 pm (UTC)And congratulations, Sarah--!
no subject
Date: 2005-09-17 06:44 pm (UTC)And thank you for the lovely email (which I have not gotten around to replying to because I am a Big Loser that way). It made me feel all warm and fuzzy.