Hi there AC, and Reality Master - thanks for the warm welcome
Reality Master's financial analysis is not that far off, and AC you are right that a typical discount into the sales channel is 60%, which increases the break even point by that sort of magnitude, yes it does [bites tongue]
I have a lot of information in front of me about how many copies a computer book sells, across various publishers and technologies. I need to keep it quite general, but in today's book market, for most publishers (unless they really crack a book from the furnace that just all of us feel we must have [one book to bind us? apols]) then it just isn't that easy to go significantly beyond your discount-reajusted break-even point at the moment. Especially when there are so many books out there on some of the recent technologies - it is one tough market for publishers, although more books create a wider choice for programmers - in the short term at least.
The Y2000 period was a little bit different, and Wrox for sure was able to pay higher rates to its author and reviewer colleagues during that time. As an independent company, we adapt to the market conditions as best we can: that's why we do review our author rates.
But I tell what you already know indeed: Wrox rates and general publisher rates in the programming sector won't usually let anyone quit their day job. But Wrox isn't about quiting our day jobs... if you're an author/programmer then you like what you do and I really trust that there's some good things that happen when you work with Wrox as an author or reviewer.
And for sure:) you've gotta really WANT to work with Wrox to publish your ideas to other programmers - more than once we've received a complaint from spouses about how involved their partner has become with a Wrox project. I have myself worked as an editor through a long day, slept on the floor by my computer, and picked myself up to start again a few hours later for the next day. NOT that this is how you have to do it at Wrox!! - but sometimes, when the spirit is with you, the book can mean that much. It felt great to see that book become what we all wanted it be when it was published - but then I took some time off!! No regrets. This is our lives, and imo we should sometimes do things that just feel good. I continue to hope that working with Wrox as an author and reviewer can supply some of life's rich stuff (if not enough cash to exactly retire.)
OK you've got me ready to go and read some of our recent author dedications again now... see you later!
xd
Wrox invites talented programmers to write books with us so that together we can create useful materials that are relevant to other programmers.
And we are here because this process seems to be fundamentally a healthy one: some programmers share their knowledge by publishing through Wrox, and just about any programmer has the option to learn from what our authors have written. Wrox of course is not a charity: we are an independent publisher and if we are to continue we need the ongoing support of our authors and readers.
Could Wrox pay professional programming rates? We could not - we would go out of business. We invest a lot of time and resources making Wrox books the best we can make them. It's that simple. The publishing business does not have the same market forces behind it that drives professional programming rates.
On a related point, yes it is true that if you are a programmer who works with Wrox then you will find we ask you to work harder than most: we invest a lot of time creating our books and we ask our authors to invest a lot of their time and talent to work with us during the writing+editing stages. This is a matter of pride and a matter of identity: we want to make great books, we think our authors want to be proud of what they have published, and we want our readers to feel they have made a great decision to buy and read books from Wrox.
Wrox Press does not therefore want to insult anyone: we offer author royalties and rates at the level that we can, we review those rates when we can, and we hope that we are offering something valuable for programmers whilst making an honest living.
If anyone has worked with us as an author on one of our books and doesn't feel that the personal and financial rewards were worth it, please mail me at dominics@wrox.com, I'd like to know. It's great to see some of our authors already on this thread.
Slashdot Mirror
Reality Master's financial analysis is not that far off, and AC you are right that a typical discount into the sales channel is 60%, which increases the break even point by that sort of magnitude, yes it does [bites tongue]
I have a lot of information in front of me about how many copies a computer book sells, across various publishers and technologies. I need to keep it quite general, but in today's book market, for most publishers (unless they really crack a book from the furnace that just all of us feel we must have [one book to bind us? apols]) then it just isn't that easy to go significantly beyond your discount-reajusted break-even point at the moment. Especially when there are so many books out there on some of the recent technologies - it is one tough market for publishers, although more books create a wider choice for programmers - in the short term at least.
The Y2000 period was a little bit different, and Wrox for sure was able to pay higher rates to its author and reviewer colleagues during that time. As an independent company, we adapt to the market conditions as best we can: that's why we do review our author rates.
But I tell what you already know indeed: Wrox rates and general publisher rates in the programming sector won't usually let anyone quit their day job. But Wrox isn't about quiting our day jobs ... if you're an author/programmer then you like what you do and I really trust that there's some good things that happen when you work with Wrox as an author or reviewer.
And for sure :) you've gotta really WANT to work with Wrox to publish your ideas to other programmers - more than once we've received a complaint from spouses about how involved their partner has become with a Wrox project. I have myself worked as an editor through a long day, slept on the floor by my computer, and picked myself up to start again a few hours later for the next day. NOT that this is how you have to do it at Wrox!! - but sometimes, when the spirit is with you, the book can mean that much. It felt great to see that book become what we all wanted it be when it was published - but then I took some time off!! No regrets. This is our lives, and imo we should sometimes do things that just feel good. I continue to hope that working with Wrox as an author and reviewer can supply some of life's rich stuff (if not enough cash to exactly retire.)
OK you've got me ready to go and read some of our recent author dedications again now ... see you later!
xd
I am not a Wrox author but I am a Wrox publisher.
Wrox invites talented programmers to write books with us so that together we can create useful materials that are relevant to other programmers.
And we are here because this process seems to be fundamentally a healthy one: some programmers share their knowledge by publishing through Wrox, and just about any programmer has the option to learn from what our authors have written. Wrox of course is not a charity: we are an independent publisher and if we are to continue we need the ongoing support of our authors and readers.
Could Wrox pay professional programming rates? We could not - we would go out of business. We invest a lot of time and resources making Wrox books the best we can make them. It's that simple. The publishing business does not have the same market forces behind it that drives professional programming rates.
On a related point, yes it is true that if you are a programmer who works with Wrox then you will find we ask you to work harder than most: we invest a lot of time creating our books and we ask our authors to invest a lot of their time and talent to work with us during the writing+editing stages. This is a matter of pride and a matter of identity: we want to make great books, we think our authors want to be proud of what they have published, and we want our readers to feel they have made a great decision to buy and read books from Wrox.
Wrox Press does not therefore want to insult anyone: we offer author royalties and rates at the level that we can, we review those rates when we can, and we hope that we are offering something valuable for programmers whilst making an honest living.
If anyone has worked with us as an author on one of our books and doesn't feel that the personal and financial rewards were worth it, please mail me at dominics@wrox.com, I'd like to know. It's great to see some of our authors already on this thread.
regards,
Dominic Shakeshaft (Publisher Wrox Press)