Question: I'm talking to a publisher who
says that my Oracle book will only make me a few thousand dollars in royalties.
Are they ripping me off?
Answer: This is a great question. Back
in the mid 20th century, publishing a book was a major undertaking, with
typesetters and lead slugs and six figure costs that proved to be an effective
barrier to entry for nascent publishers.
Today, computer automation has made is easy to publish
books. However, the barrier to entry remains in the brick and mortar
arena, and bookstore buyers (Barnes & Noble, Borders, &c) carefully vet the
publishers and authors.
The good news is that there is still room for excellent
books on hot Oracle topics. If you want to become an author, just fill-in
an
Rampant Oracle Book Proposal Form.
Shelf space in a book store is an expensive resource, and the
bookstores employ a mathematical "hurdle rate" to measure the profit, storage
cost and velocity of each and every book in the store. Only books with
demonstrable sales velocity are replenished.
-
Successful books are priced high and sold low -
A book has a much better chance of getting on the shelves if the publisher
charges a high price, and sells the book at significantly less than their
competition. Books on specialty topics with inelastic demand (no close
substitutes) are ideal. Remember, the bookstores only "rent" the
books. They can keep them for years and then return them to the
publisher for a full refund.
-
Footprint matters - The ratio of profit to
footprint is important. A cheaper, large book is less desirable than a
tiny, high margin book.
-
Quality counts - Known, proven authors sell
better than neophytes, and the reputation of the author and publisher is
paramount.
There are several external factor that influence the Oracle
book market in 2008:
-
The Oracle market is mature - When I started in
the mid 1990's a good Oracle book could easily sell 10,000 copies. Today,
the space in the bookstores have gone-down from entire shelves to one rack,
and publishers fight fiercely for the shelf space. Hence, niche topics
and experience-based books without close competitors are de' rigueur.
Long gone are the days when theoretical computer books sell well. See
my notes on the
bestselling computer books of all time, and contrast that with my notes
on
bestselling Oracle books!
-
People still buy lots of books - Just look at
the shelf space dedicated to new technologies and it becomes clear that the
free crap on the blogs are not effecting the desire for quality information,
information that's worth paying for.
-
Plagiarism is haunting the market - I've had
major publishers accidentally publish content stolen directly from my web
pages, and Oracle community is reeling with thieves. See my notes on
why the theft of
Oracle research has become epidemic.
It's a super-competitive market for Oracle books, and
publisher still invest a small fortune in producing and distributing Oracle
books. It costs just as much money to develop a low-selling book as a
bestseller.
As to author royalties, it depends on the business model of
the publisher, and most offer anywhere from 8% up to 15%.
For more details, see my notes on
computer book author compensation.
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