A: Robert
Christopherson, TAA member, author of Geosystems:
"Quick response
on used-book impact. With my 3-year revision cycle we do not stay
ahead of the used-book sales erosion. Fortunately in my field there
is so much dynamic change that such a revision cycle is warranted.
The largest royalty
checks occur April 1 (sales July 1 to Dec 31) the first year
after a new book. Oct 1 (sales Jan 1 to June 30) is usually low for
early spring instocks. If you have multiple titles that are on
alternate years, that helps even the royalties--as one title
is hit by used books, the other title is on the rise. You can
have a market leading text with increasing adoptions and see
sales go down in the third year because of used-book sales.
Keep track of
how many printings your edition goes through by checking with editors
or checking shipments at the bookstore of new books and the print number
on the copyright page. Also, check Amazon and others and see what
the discounts are for your book--I've found a poor competing
book, losing market share has deeper discounts than a book on
the rise, commanding new market share---I take this as an indicator
of used-book availability---short used-book supply, less discount.
A best seller, one that might be kept as a reference book, has smaller
discounts.
To make a text
more of a "keeper," if appropriate in your field, write with a voice,
a POV, to the student, with the student, for the student. I embed
over 200 URLs throughout my texts not only to help the pedagogy
but to make it a reference work, one to keep.
Used books are
a nightmare---a leading text with growing market share and declining
sales---go figure. So glad we have TAA."
A: John
Budd, University of Minnesota:
"In the budget
/ business plan for a new text I am proposing, my editor at McGraw-Hill
assumed that approximately 60 percent of the total sales would be
in year one, 30 percent in year two, and 10 percent in year three."
A: Christa
Harris, Executive Editor, World Languages, McGraw-Hill Higher
Education:
"I'm an editor
with McGraw-Hill. Loss to used books varies greatly discipline
to discipline. At McGraw-Hill, anyway, we refer to this loss
by the term 'retention rate', which looks at it from the perspective
of how much is retained rather than lost. (Does that make us
optimists...? Or just good with euphemism?). The retention rate
is usually expressed as a percentage when editors do their revenue
forecasting, in case you're interested or ask your editor about
retention rates.
I'm in languages,
and our retention rate is above average (which means we're lucky,
more students keep our books than in other disciplines, which in turn
means more new book sales).
And then, each
book will have its own average retention rate. As an aside, that
might make an interesting study some day, to figure out the retention
rates of various books in the same discipline - and various publishers,
if you could ever get data from multiple publishers (I know I couldn't!).
Then compare, to see if you can figure out what boosts retention
rates, or affects them negatively...
And... then there
are factors like pirating, book sharing by dorm-mates - sort
of like a 'textbook timeshare' - and other variables that are outside
of our control that will change the disciplines retention rates from
year to year as well. So I can tell you what last year's retention
rate was, but can't tell you yet what this year's retention rate is (until
all the numbers are tallied at the end of the year).
But back to your
question.
Royalty rates
would decline, really, only in three ways: 1) if fewer copies
are being sold in later years (or more returns are coming in), or
2) if the revenue the publisher is getting from the sales declines
(even if copies sold remains the same), and 3) if an author's
contract specifies a lower royalty rate under certain conditions (sales
below a certain number of copies, for example).
Scenario 1 is
very common... and varies as verbosely explained above. Scenario 2
can happen also - sometimes backlist books are discounted, or packages
with supplements offer discounts, all to encourage sales. Scenario
3 is also very common.
By the way, I've
seen several posts on the [TAA] listserv that lead me to believe
authors often feel in the dark about the number of copies of their
books that are being sold. Your editor can tell you, to the exact number,
exactly how many copies of your book have been sold. Your editor can
tell you today exactly how many copies have been sold up until yesterday
evening. At the end of the year your editor can tell you exactly how
many copies have been sold in the calendar year. I can look this
data up in seconds on my computer and I can't imagine other publishing
companies don't have the same kind of information readily available
too.
It seems bizarre
to me that an editor wouldn't share this information with his/her
author. What's the harm in telling the author of a book exactly how
many copies have sold? Then the author feels more comfortable
when the mysterious, arcane and overly complex royalty statements
arrive. But don't get me started with that..."
A: Ginny
Borden Maier: "Thanks for the replies to my query about how I should
expect sales to drop year-over-year within an edition as a result
of used books. It's clear that the answer is different depending
on the discipline and nature of the market.
I will share
the answer I received from my editor. He estimates that, when
adoption rates remain the same (so the same number of copies are being
sold), a little more than 50% of the books sold after one year are
used copies. In other words, I should expect royalties to drop to less
than 50% in the second year of an edition. He wasn't as certain about
the third year, but essentially said 'don't expect much at all, kid.'
I would say that
my experience is near the worst-case scenario in terms of impact
of used book sales. I write Biology textbooks for non-majors -- these
students are much less likely to hang onto a book for 'reference'
after the course than a major is. (Hmm. Kinda wondering about my career
choice here. Should have tried to get into anatomy books for
med students, maybe.)
Anyway, my query
was stimulated by my learning that my September 'royalty' is a negative
balance, due to all the bookstore returns in Jan-June of this year.
I wasn't expecting much, but I needed to know whether my expected
royalty in March of 08 was going to cover this balance and leave any
payout for, say, groceries. Thanks again for your replies, and
happy writing!"
