Hell Mode paperback?
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Is there any chance that Hell Mode will get physical releases?
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@miniika It basically depends on how well the series is selling. JNC won't comment on it unless it actually is happening, but if you go around the forums there have been rough estimates given on how well a novel needs to be selling on a per volume basis digitally for them to consider giving it a physical print run.
I believe the ebook needs to sell around 5000 copies in a reasonable time frame for them to consider a physical run (obviously there may be other factors as well). It sounds like a print run is 3000 books minimum, so they'd want to have high enough digital sales numbers to reasonably believe a print run won't be a complete flop.
There's a discussion topic that lays out some of the details below, though keep in mind that nothing ever stays static, what was true when all the various quotes were made may no longer hold true today, but if the novel is selling gangbusters digitally, there's at least a reasonable chance someone's at least reviewing it for a print run.
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@jpwong that makes me wonder what is the total cost of publishing a run of books? I imagine the per book printing cost can't be that high but there is probably a bit of overhead involved.
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@mortcs If I'm not mistaken there's a global backlog in the printing industry right now which has probably driven up costs since demand for print runs far exceeds the supply of printers. There's also additional shipping costs which could be higher if you aren't printing domestically, and IIRC, JNC typically has their prints done in Korea.
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@mortcs said in Hell Mode paperback?:
@jpwong that makes me wonder what is the total cost of publishing a run of books? I imagine the per book printing cost can't be that high but there is probably a bit of overhead involved.
While overheads such as design are fixed the unit price for printing and binding depends on the size of the print run. As such, you can't just reduce the print run size for less popular books unless you were also confident in being able to charge more per book to compensate (which would normally reduce sales even further and so would be a false economy).
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@mortcs said in Hell Mode paperback?:
@jpwong that makes me wonder what is the total cost of publishing a run of books? I imagine the per book printing cost can't be that high but there is probably a bit of overhead involved.
I think 'a bit' might be an understatement
a physical copy likely needs a new layout (there's a point where number of pages makes a difference, text justification on the page to fit on page size/book length etc) proofreading, editing not only of the text but of art as well- plus production of covers/cover art, tables on content and other content not needed in an epub etc - money money money- and how many copies (physical) must sell before you recoup that cost? and sell where? amazon and/or brick a mortar outlets need their cut, and a cost of distribution. shipping etc. (and duties if printing is done overseas) it isn't just a matter of sending someone a file and getting a printout.
a publisher has to have an idea is however many thousands of copies are likely to sell over what time frame to take the risk/make the investment to do a print run
edit to add: if the 'soft' cost above are (a conservative) $5,000 and the run of 10,000 copies might 'cost' $30,000 and sell (at wholesale for $8.00/ea- from which you need to pay royalties, an amount that is a mystery to me- for the sake of argument - lets call it $3.00), so JNC has a 'profit' of $5.00/copy of a book that has a cover price of $12-15.00. You don't break even until you sell 7,000 copies, and the potential net profit on the run is only $15,000 - the risk:reward ratio isn't the best
now all that goes out the window (and you have OTHER variables to deal with) if you are working with a boutique publisher that does limited runs (like leatherbound/ author signed/ limited editions etc) where a print run may only be 1000 units and costs might me $100 a book -
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