At 04:26 PM 12/5/2003 -0500, Roman Turovsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > but the distribution > > scheme in place is comprised of the publisher>main distributor>subsidiary > > distributors>dealers. They all get a cut. > > > > The cost per copy is $32.- Applying the rule, the list price should be > > $224. As you can tell from my on line catalogue, the suggested list price > > for this book is $98.- In my estimation then, there was no way I could sell > > the book at all if the price was over the watershed number of a $100.- >My experience with distributors and dealers is that they add 1/3 of their >cost to the price and pass it onto the next level. >So a "$32 MO book" would be $44 at the first distributor, and $60 at the >HYPOTHETICAL second distributor, $80 for the end user, but only if the >second distributor ever existed.
Obviously your experience with dealers and distributors is not the same as mine and as that of the rest of the world in the music publishing business. Nevertheless, you completely misunderstand the difference between costs of production and commercial discount. My $32.- dollars is what it took to produce the book. Period. Out of pocket expenses. Distributors and dealers get their discounts off the official "suggested list price". In the US, it is against the law to fix prices, but in Europe it is against the law to charge anything other than the price fixed by the publisher. IOW, my distributor sells books to their secondary distributors in various countries, and they in turn sell them to the shops. The discount structure of my distributor, the Theodore presser Company, is stated in their policy and if you want to know what it is, please apply to them and ask for their sales terms. I am sure they will be happy to oblige. It is based on the official suggested list price, the price that I decide what it will be for each individual edition. >So an MO book that costs $100 at the dealer- costs $67 at Theodor Presser, >i.e. MO got $45 for it- and made a $15 profit. Bullshit calculation based on ignorant assumptions. >If the MO cost is indeed authentic (the man's tongue in notably forked >[allow me to refrain from further biological considerations]) then his take >home pay is not insignificant (his rule of thumb of "7 times the cost" is >pure fantasy). yes of course. Not insignificant. Actually when I sell the book at full price directly to an individual, I make a killing, greedy bastard that I am. A killing that occurs about one every couple of years for this particular book. That and a buck 95 will not even get you a cup of coffee at Starbuck's. The fantasy above mentioned is used by the majority of commercial publishers world wide. Of course there are variations. Sometimes the price is 10 times cost, and sometimes it is 3 times cost. I have been using this rule of thumb for the last 25 years, and it was not my invention. I was given the secret of it by one Brian Jeffery. >However the publishers produce facsimiles not to make money. The facsimiles >make their OTHER books look trustworthy and sellable. In other words the >facsimiles are promotional material to a large degree. So a publisher that does nothing but facsimiles, like Minkoff for example, is using facsimiles to promotes facsimiles? The formula is different. Large publishers rely mostly on their popular music fodder to bring in the bread, but they do money losing prestigious editions as a service to the community, not as advertising. Publishers who do not do _any_ popular music, no country Western, no rock'n'roll, do not have the luxury of being able to afford community service and must rely on ALL their editions to at least break even. Besides, the idea of expensive facsimiles used as advertising material is laughable. The people who buy my classical guitar music, with few exceptions of course, have no interest in lute tablature in any format. And definitely not in facsimiles which they cannot read anyway. But may be you have something there. I can start a program of bonus giveaways. You buy one copy of my Tango book, and you get the Swan manuscript for free. Will surely be a better use for the paper than macerating it into toilet paper and shopping bags. Matanya Ophee Editions Orphe'e, Inc., 1240 Clubview Blvd. N. Columbus, OH 43235-1226 Phone: 614-846-9517 Fax: 614-846-9794 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.orphee.com
