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Blogs by Erik Hare
Publishing, Redux
9/3/2007 5:28:08 PM
I usually only write for my blog on a M-W-F basis. I have to make a living, after all. But recently I started getting some mail in response to entries I’ve made, and I thought that Tuesday or even Thursday might be good days to answer this.
I’ve said quite a lot about the publishing industry lately, and I’m happy to report that a few people in the industry read my entries.
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewblog.asp?authorid=55121&m=8&y=2007&blogid=23480
To be honest, it probably means that I will never have a book published after insulting them the way I do, but unlike most writers I can claim that an agent and a publisher actually read something I wrote! Isn’t this all just a desperate cry for attention anyway?
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewblog.asp?authorid=55121&m=8&y=2007&blogid=23627
One response summarized what people in the industry had to say about my musings:
“You don’t seem to understand that this is a business. We’re not here to lose money publishing great art, we’re here to make money.”
Well, I thought I made it clear when I referred to writers as the “Primary means of production” that I saw this as money maker. I’m not galled by the money; heck, I want some of it if I can get it. What got my attention was the rather obvious observation that when you force your primary means of production to take all the risk, you are looking at an industry in its death throes. I don’t care if you are making widgets or books, if you pull out the whip and force your manufacturing line make up for all of your other deficiencies you’re in the midst of a catastrophe that W. Edwards Deming tried long and hard to warn you about.
So, let’s see how well the Big 4 Publishers are doing as a business, since I don’t seem to understand this as well as my publisher friends. It’s hard to get a lot of good numbers, since they are all divisions of larger companies. But I was able to get their Return on Sales (ROS) with a little digging:
| Publisher | Owner | 2006 rev, M$ | Earn, M$ | ROS |
| Random House | Bertelsmann | $2,641 | $248 | 9.4% |
| Penguin Group | Pearson | $1,704 | $117 | 6.8% |
| Harper Collins | News Corp | $1,347 | $159 | 11.8% |
| Simon & Schuster | CBS Corp | $807 | $69 | 8.5% |
| Total | $6,500 | $592 | 9.1% |
Overall, they are making money – but just barely. Consider that 3M and Johnson & Johnson, both big manufacturers, have an ROS around 28%. News Corp, as a media giant, has an overall ROS of 22.5%, so Harper Collins is obviously lagging other media. And Yahoo!, which might be the future of media, is a healthy 31.1% ROS.
So is the industry in any position to lecture li’l ol’ me on how to run a business? I leave it to you to decide. I maintain that they are leaving a lot of money on the table by not having a system to identify and develop quality the way nearly every other industry has been forced to do. And don’t tell me about technology, because other mass entertainment and media companies have figured it out – movies go to theaters first, cable next, and DVDs last. That’s how the other divisions of News Corp do it, and they seem to be doing just fine.
That's my mailbag for now, but I love to hear from my readers. Please send me mail as wabbitoid47 at yahoo.com if you like what you see or just think I'm a total gasbag in need of a serious slamming. Either way works for me.
(and I apologize for the inability to do live links - the system here at Author's Den is pretty lousy)
Additional info:
http://reports2.equitystory.com/cgi-bin/show.ssp?companyName=bertelsmann&report_id=gb-2006&language=English
http://www.pearson.com/investor/ar2006/governance/notes-consolidated/notes-02.html
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=80133&p=IROL-secToc
http://www.cbscorporation.com/assets/documents/200610kfinal.pdf
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