Thanks for stopping by!

Regarding your question about whether an agent could negotiate a minimum print run, I kind of doubt it. Publishers want to print the number of copies for which there’s an established demand, and until they get the orders from booksellers, they don’t know what that demand would be. I think it would be very dangerous for them to promise a minimum number of copies in the initial print run and then discover their orders fell far short of that.

As to what constitutes a large enough print run, I think there are a combination of factors. My “bet” is that 25,000 is about the lowest you’d want to see printed in an initial run of a mmpb, but closer to 30k-40k is probably what publishers would really like to see as the low end.

It’s also dependent on the size of the advance the author got in the first place, though. The higher the advance, the more incentive there is on the part of publisher to get as many copies as possible ordered in the first print run. Of course, this also means the publisher is more likely to have its sales force promoting the book to retailers really heavily, so the chances of getting that higher print run number go way up.

You mention having little control over print run– is is possible for agents, if you talk about it at the get-go, to exert some influence over print-run before you sign a contract?

Obviously this is not something we deal with in category, but as I make my ever-continuing effort to move out into ST, I wonder about these things. Would it make sense to walk away from a pub who wouldn’t agree to a larger print-run? And how do we know what constitues “large” enough?

Sam

The really hard thing about this is that your book is made or broken based on bookseller pre-orders (which largely determines print run). So unless you are really going like wildfire, your career as an author can be in trouble months before your first book even hits the shelves.

This is why there is so much focus these days on ‘high concept’ and ’selling blurbs.’ The marketing department HAS to have something to say in one or two sentences that will convince the book buyers that YOUR book is one they must order.

It’s a complicated system, and one that aspiring authors need to understand. Getting that first contract for a book is only the beginning of what can be a wild, challenging journey.

Thanks for helping shed some light!

Margaret

http://www.MargaretMallory.com
Knight of Desire-Available Now
Knight of Pleasure-Dec 2009
Knight of Passion-June 2010