How to Weather the Economic Storm: A Q&A with Eric Kampmann, president of Midpoint Trade Books and Beaufort Books
Extra: What about that old supply chain albatross, returns? Is now the time to try to weaken that practice by putting pressure on distributors?
Kampmann: To understand what makes returns such an epidemic problem, you must trace back to where the problem begins, which, more often than not, is with faulty editorial judgment. When a book is bought for a large sum of money, every financial/publishing decision that follows must proceed from the first assumption. If you make an investment of $500,000 in a particular book, then you are not going to attempt to sell just 5,000 copies. The economics of the royalty advance demand appropriate responses down the publishing line, including advance sales into bookstores and supporting marketing budgets. But are these numbers supported by the realities in the marketplace?
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