NP - Book sales info question for p-list

[Mark Kohut]

A day's reflection leads me to say that the printing tightness I adumbrated below is probably too tight
for a book such as Vineland......steady predictable sales would mean printings would be larger, perhaps
the biggest consideration being trying not to have too much inventory at taxing times......So, maybe two
printings a year, maybe even just one----so 10,000 very possible in this example
 
Scenario I outlined more used when the publisher is unccertain whether sales of 1,000 a month now will 
hold over time....just drop sales 5 or 10% per month in your calculations and you will see how quickly
a larger printing will be too many very soon.....
 

From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: Albert Rolls <alprolls at earthlink.net>; Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 1:00 PM
Subject: Re: NP - Book sales info question for p-list


Yes, my morning eyes on my small monitor read VL as IV........has VL only been in paperback
in England for six (6) years?......or did he mean within six years of first paperback printing....
 
It is not the very small incremental cost---or decline in unit cost often---that makes say a 5,000 copy printing
almost as cost effective as a 2,500-copy printing...it is 'the cost of money over time", lack of inventory turnover
per house formula, overhead 'charge' for warehousing and paying taxes on inventory (goods) coupled with the
ease, after a book is set up, of just pressing the button on another printing....
 
If @1,000 Vinelands sold per month (averaged)---with spikes around the start of college terms (when assigned),
a publisher could easily print @ 2,500 every couple-three months and be very happy...........to get in a new printing
when you are down to @500--in this example again---would be the plan. 
 
Given this scenario, most would never do even 10,000-copy print runs and hold. In the US at least. 
 
Still, point Rankin made is correct: It sells and continues to. Some outside of course requirements, whatever they are, 
as one can tell from bloggers and others who write about reading it new. 

From: Albert Rolls <alprolls at earthlink.net>
To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: NP - Book sales info question for p-list


Sorry, I forgot to add the p-List address
Rankin likely means the British pb of Vineland, so PW might not have Rankin's info, but call the pb publisher. Someone, perhaps not editorial, has to know.

But as Mark says maybe the publisher won't say. However, the size of print runs
 can't be completely minuscule. A 5,000 print-run doesn't cost that much more than a 2,500 print run because the price of set up absorbs a lot of the costs when one is printing small runs. I would imagine 6 printings would be at least 100,000 books and probably more, as big publishers' have warehouse space, which may not mean a whole lot anyway because the British publisher distributes outside of Britain. 


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