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« Last post by LilyBLily on April 28, 2024, 12:35:09 AM »
PW spotlighted Entangled recently and I was shocked that it has moved from mostly ebook to mostly hardcover with print runs as large as 850,000 copies for Rebecca Yarros's next romantasy. Entangled is feeling quite optimistic and perhaps rightly so; apparently she is a blockbuster author, an outlier who will make everyone involved a fortune.
A prior report on Entangled in March said they're planning on printing 30,000-60,000 copies of their typical hardcovers from other authors, with a $17.99 cover price. Good print numbers, but not earthshaking, and here's why:
Returns are a key measurement of how trad publishing is going. So my question is, what is the current rate of returns for hardcovers? For trade paper? Are they trending up or down? If they're trending up, then we know the trad pub business is on rocky ground--although unlikely to fall apart anytime soon. Historically, when returns trend up, profits go down, and the publisher has to seek other revenue streams to sustain it. Sub rights, usually. Ebooks. Audiobooks. Reasons why trad pub contracts now typically are big rights grabs and an author needs a tough agent to negotiate retaining their rights or getting a fair split with the publisher. Money is still being made, and publishing is still a big gamble. But what is the trend?