SAN DIEGO, June. 30 – The 2010 Hispanic Business Showcase, http://www.hbshowcase.com, taking place on September 10-11, 2010 at the San Diego Convention Center, announced [...]]]> Leading business experts to speak on the growing importance of the Internet and technology in today’s Hispanic business environment. The business seminars and panels are sponsored by SDG&E and U.S. Bank.

SAN DIEGO, June. 30 – The 2010 Hispanic Business Showcase, http://www.hbshowcase.com, taking place on September 10-11, 2010 at the San Diego Convention Center, announced its impressive line up of speakers. The definitive business event for Hispanic businesses and professionals, brings together leaders from the e-commerce, professional services, and technology industries and provides critical cross-industry learning and valuable new business partnership opportunities. Attendees registered for the 2010 Hispanic Business Showcase seminars will have full access to panels and to the exposition floor.

Panel speakers, sponsored by Sempra Energy’s SDG&E and U.S. Bank, include executives from The U.S. Small Business Administration, ACCION San Diego, CDC Small Business Finance, DIÁLOGO Public Relations, and many more.

The Showcase will also feature some notable business thought leaders speaking at “Learning Tracks” business seminars. Mirna Bard encourages business owners to forget the hype “Get Started on Social Media Right Away,” Antonio de la Cerda exhibits his technology expertise on “Basic IT Concepts for Small Business,” Juan Chaparro illustrates how to “Set Up An Online Store,” Miriam Muley unleashes “The Power of Women and Women of Color for Exponential Growth,” Richie Matthews joins Lucia Matthews to highlight their successes “Reaching and Activating Hispanic Consumers Using Dialogue not Monologue,” and Mari Smith shares her thoughts on “Facebook Marketing an Hour a Day”. Join these and many other speakers for an enlightening look at the past, present, and future of Hispanic Business and Technology. A complete list of speakers can be found at http://www.hbshowcase.com/seminars

The 2010 Hispanic Business Showcase gives attendees the information they need to deeply connect with and generate revenue from online Hispanic consumers and businesses. The conference program provides the ultimate technology, e-commerce, and general business mash-up with many speakers delivering 18 informative sessions on topics that include access to capital, brand extension strategies, e-commerce, marketing tips, Hispanic public relations practices, online retail sales, and social media.

Keynote speaker: Fernando Espuelas, the founder of StarMedia, is recognized as an Internet pioneer by the New York Times, Harvard University and media across the world. He went on to raise $500 million dollars for StarMedia in a combination of private and public offerings.

The conference registration price is Free and seminar passes are available for $75. The Showcase floor provides key demonstrations of the latest tools, technologies, products, and services being used to build and market an online business. A complete list of exhibitors can be found at http://www.hbshowcase.com/exhibitors

About the 2010 Hispanic Business Showcase

The 2010 Hispanic Business Showcase is produced by The Hispanic Chamber of E-Commerce. The two-day event will also feature a Hispanic Business & Technology Expo where exhibitors will have the opportunity to increase their company’s awareness within the Hispanic community. Information about how to become a sponsor and/or an exhibitor can be found by visiting http://www.hbshowcase.com or by contacting Richie Matthews at richie@prdialogo.com.

One of the things that’s hard to remember is that the publisher makes a significant financial investment in each writer, with [...]]]> Is Your Book Worth It?
Yesterday I told you how book royalties work, so today I want to go further and explain a little more about the finances of publishing, this time from the publisher’s perspective.

One of the things that’s hard to remember is that the publisher makes a significant financial investment in each writer, with no guarantee that the book will sell. It’s one of the reasons publishers have to make such careful decisions. There’s so much competition out there, and each book costs a substantial amount of cash before your book ever hits the shelves and makes a dime.

But what does that mean? How much will a typical publisher spend on your book before they’ve sold a single copy?

Here’s a hypothetical overview. Keep in mind this is simply an example and the numbers vary WIDELY from book to book, and from publisher to publisher. This is to illustrate that even if a publisher doesn’t offer you a large advance (or any advance at all), they’re still spending a lot of money on your book, which they may or may not recoup.

Trade Paper:
Editorial: $6,000
Packaging (cover design & production): $4,000
Typeset & Interior layouts: $2000
Printing & binding: $13,000
Marketing: $8,000
Warehousing: $4,000
Sales: $6,000
Author royalty (a typical advance is calculated in this model): $15,000

TOTAL: $58,000

If the cover price is $14.99, and the net price (the amount the publisher actually receives for each book) is $6.75, then the breakeven point for the publisher to recoup their cost is around 8,600 copies sold. (Again, highly simplified for illustration purposes.) Any fewer than that—the publisher is losing money on your book.

Hardcover:
Editorial: $8,000
Packaging (cover design & production): $5,000
Typeset & Interior layouts: $3,000
Printing & binding: $18,000
Marketing: $15,000
Warehousing: $6,000
Sales: $10,000
Author royalty (a typical advance is calculated in this model): $25,000

TOTAL: $90,000

If the cover price is $25.00 and the net price is $11.25, then the breakeven point is around 8,000 copies.

Keep in mind that publishers couldn’t stay in business if all they ever did was break even. In fact, they break even on some books, and they lose money on others. You wonder why they’re always looking for a big NYT bestseller? Well, they’ve got to pay their bills somehow. Many publishers count on the success of a few big products to pay for all the others that don’t sell as well. To put it more personally (for those of you who complain that publishing is so commercial and everything’s about money, yada yada yada…) if you’re a first-time author, it’s possible those bestsellers are paying for YOUR book to be published, because it’s possible the publisher will lose money on your book.

Can you guarantee your book will sell enough copies to pay for itself? Are you committed to participating in marketing so that your book has a better chance of selling? Maybe this makes it easier to understand why it’s so crucial for publishers to choose books they think consumers will actually buy, and choose authors who will help sell.

→ These numbers, though they are hypothetical, apply to “mid list” books or those that have not received ginormous advances nor are expected to hit #1 on the bestseller list. The finances are quite different for books that receive larger advances. The marketing budget skyrockets, and more will be spent on all other aspects as well—editorial, design, printing, etc. So the breakeven point is a much higher number of copies.

→ The formula varies widely based on many factors. One of them is the initial print run, which will be determined by the pre-sales, i.e. the number of books ordered by retail outlets (or other entities) prior to printing. The initial print run for a book from a first-time author will typically fall in the 5,000 to 15,000 range, but could vary from that.

→ The royalty needs to be calculated, regardless of whether there’s an advance, because it will be part of the publisher’s cost. Obviously the royalty paid out is dependent on number of copies sold, so it can’t accurately be calculated ahead of time. For purposes of this hypothetical model, I chose a reasonable figure.

→ Production costs are MUCH higher for four-color illustrated books or any kind of special packaging.

So let’s put this in Shark Tank (http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/10/welcome-to-shark-tank.html) terms. When you’re pitching a publisher, you’re asking them to invest $50,000 to $90,000 in YOU and your product. Are you giving them something that will make them confident it’s a good investment?

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/11/is-your-book-worth-it.html

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Author: Rachelle Gardner
rachelle@wordserveliterary.com

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

If you are not subscribed to Ms. Gardner’s blog, you are missing out on some serious — and many times fun – information on the book publishing industry. If I know anything, it’s because I am a faithful reader of this agent’s blog. ________________________________________ How Book Royalties Work [...]]]> Agent Rachelle Gardner Speaks on Royalties
Rachelle Gardner, agent extraordinaire

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

If you are not subscribed to Ms. Gardner’s blog, you are missing out on some serious — and many times fun – information on the book publishing industry. If I know anything, it’s because I am a faithful reader of this agent’s blog.
________________________________________
How Book Royalties Work
This is one of those basic topics about which you may be confused if you’re just entering the world of publishing. You’ve heard the terms advance and royalties but you’re not quite sure how it all works. I’ll try to explain as simply as possible.

The concept of a royalty is that the author receives a percentage of the revenue for each book sold. The exact percentage can’t be generalized because it depends on a variety of factors: the size of the publisher, whether it’s a CBA or ABA house, the author’s platform and saleability, and each publisher’s own criteria (of which you may never be aware).

Keep in mind that as technology continues to develop and publishing models change, this age-old royalty model is going to be changing, too. Very soon it may be out of date, but this is the way it has been for decades.

Most publishers pay the royalty based on the cover price (or retail price) of the book. CBA publishers usually pay royalties based on the NET price of the book, that is, the price at which the publisher sold the book to the bookstore.

Royalty rates vary widely, so keep in mind I’m generalizing wildly here, but just to give you an idea:

General market publishers, first time author:
Hardcover royalty: 10% to 15% of retail
Trade paperback royalty: 6.5% to 7.5% of retail
Mass market paperback royalty: 7.5% to 10% of retail

CBA publishers, first time author:
Hardcover or trade paperback royalty: 14% to 18% of net
Mass market paperback royalty: 8% to 12% of net

Here’s a hypothetical example for a general market (not CBA) hardcover, first-time author:

Cover price: $25.00

Royalty rate: 10% of retail = $2.50. You make $2.50 on every book sold.

Let’s say your advance was $15,000. That means you’ve already been paid the first $15k of your royalties. After you earn $15,000 in royalties, you’ll start seeing royalty checks.

How many copies do you have to sell to earn back your $15,000 advance?

Answer: 6,000 books. ($2.50 per book x 6,000 books = $15,000 advance)

After you sell 6,000 copies, you will begin to see royalty checks. $2.50 for every additional book sold.

Here’s a hypothetical example for a CBA trade paperback:

Cover price: $13.99

Net price: $6.30 (sold to bookstore at standard 55% discount)

Royalty rate: Let’s say your starting royalty rate is 16%. 16% of net = 16% of $6.30 = $1.01

You make $1.01 on every book sold.

Let’s say your advance was $5,000. You need to earn $5,000 in royalties before you start seeing royalty checks. How many copies do you have to sell to earn back your advance?

Answer: 4,951 copies. ($1.01 x 4,951 = $5,000)

After you sell 4,951 copies, you will begin to see royalty checks. $1.01 for every book sold.

**This is vastly simplified to help you understand!**

Your contract will specify royalty rates for hardcover, trade paper, and mass market paper as well as large print, book club, audio editions, electronic editions, etc. It will also specify the terms under which they’ll pay your royalties: how often, how much they hold in reserve against returns, etc. I’m not going to explain all of this right now; suffice to say, the royalties are not as simple as I’ve made them appear above.

Part 2: tomorrow; learn more on how it works.

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-book-royalties-work.html