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Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen
John, what more can you need? I won´t name the publisher I received the info from a couple of days ago via one of the authors working for that publisher.
As the above info was corroborated by with 100% by two Finnish publishers, all I can say is that the UK must be a different world. Or maybe not. After all, e.g. Hikoki and Midland are British publishers and they use glossy paper.
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Ok, Jukka, let's get down to specifics. I'm not interested in the name of the publisher. Give me the financial figures that you claim result in a one dollar difference.
Give me:
a) number of pages;
b) black and white photo content;
c) colour photo content (if any);
d) coloured artwork content;
e) print run (and run-on costs, if relevant);
f) size of company (ie., number of staff);
g) staff costs in the preparation of the book as a total percentage of the book's budget;
h) publicity costs;
i) whether any part of the publishing process is sub-contracted, ie. proof reading, and if so, the percentage cost against the book's budget;
j) discount rate to outlets/retailers;
k) discount rates to direct sales customers;
l) author's royalties;
m) storage costs (if remote storage is used);
I don't claim the above list is exhaustive, and I'm not trying to be clever in outlining all of the above, but it gives you some idea of what is involved in the publishing process carried out by a reasonably sized company. What you have to bear in mind also, is that the unit costs varies proportionally to the size of the print run. So, the unit cost for a 1,000 print run is far removed from the unit cost for a 10,000 print run. And the margins in the unit cost between top quality paper used and lesser quality paper also necessarily vary according to the print run. If the publisher has its own printing works (After The Battle) then it's a diffent matter again. Another factor to consider is that the publisher pays for any waste that occurs as a result of the printing process. Printers usually print pages in multiples of 8 or 16 pages. If the final page count falls between those two figures as a multiple, then the cost for the whole printing process still fall on the publisher. That means in some instances publishers pay for thousands of half-sheets unprinted to be simply 'binned'. Publishing is not a simple process. We should all give thanks for the fact that the volume of works in print is as large as it is for the subject that is our interest.
Jukka, in my opinion you are vitriolic in what you state, and selective in what you reply to. I acknowledge your right to submit your views to this board, and to support them in the ensuing discussion. However, I do think you need to take a more even-handed approach to subjects on the board, and acknowledge that other posters do have valid points, rather than totally ignore points to which you have no answer.