by on February 3, 2014 ·
A long time ago Jill and I started our own publishing company. It was something I had wanted to do for quite a while. Because I had spent quite a bit of time developing direct mail and other direct-sales campaigns, I thought I could sell books, too.
The publishing compnay—Globe Press Books—started out with my own self-published book, Body Types, and we went on to sign lots of authors and publish about a dozen more books in our niche.
We had some successes, and some failures. Distribution was difficult since at the time there was no Amazon, no print on demand, no internet. It was a time when every dollar we spent on promotion had to show a direct result in sales and profits, and we had a warehouse full of books already bought and paid for.
Despite the ups and downs and nonstop promotion, the company eventually went out of business. Many of our books sold, but it seemed like we just couldn’t publish them fast enough to accumulate enough profits to keep the company going.
This whole experience taught me the value of a publisher’s backlist.
Book Publishing is a Backlist Business
Publishers who have been in business for a while have an incredible asset, one that keeps their businesses running profitably—even if it’s hardly noticed by many people—year after year. It’s the backlist.More
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