There’s been a little upswing lately in publish-related stuff coming across my radar. On Friday there was both a story on Morning Edition about publishers wanting to quit doing returns and a post on the Harvard Business Publishing blog advocates a new business model for publishers.

Yesterday there were two more items to note: A blog post on what happens to book identifiers when everything is digital (with a brief mention of fair use and licensing), and a NYT article on Amazon’s tactics for dealing with publishers who protest their terms.

On a related note, last night I read the chapter on publishing in my collection development textbook and while most of it was fine, a few things just weren’t quite right:

  • Very little mention of the impact of print run size on the cost of books, except in the context of small publishers, but even large publishers will produce titles with small print runs. For example, a college textbook publisher might do so for a book aimed at graduate students or those in a highly specialized field. This is why books that are physically quite small can have very large price tags.
  • The authors claim that mass market paperbacks are only reprints of titles previously published in hardback. Not true! Science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance titles — especially those by new or emerging authors — are often originally published in mass market format.
  • “Small presses also can produce books more quickly than their larger counterparts.” Ummm…maybe in some cases, though not in my experience. Granted I’m not sure what their cut-off is for defining “small”, but as a book buyer I dealt with several mom-and-pop type publishers who were constantly pushing back publication dates.
  • No mention that “annual lists” are very frequently referred to as “front lists”. A minor point, but something that could potentially confuse those new to publishing.
  • No mention of how discounts work beyond a few passing references and the item “discount to retailer” in their break-down of a book’s suggested retail price. And that discount is figured at 50%, which isn’t necessarily typical. Discounts vary greatly depending on the publisher, the type of book,  and the size of the order. Technical, scientific, and textbooks tend to be short discount, meaning  about 15-25%, while trade books (fiction, biography, popular history, etc.) are generally 40-45% for individual titles and as much as 55-60% for larger orders. Some publishers give higher discounts on children’s books. All collection development librarians should be aware of the discount schedules for the major publishers in their subject areas so that they can intelligently build their orders.