PublishAmerica Revenue

JulieB

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Let's look at that number. $25 million in revenue over seven years is about $3.5 million a year. That was four years ago. I honestly don't know if they're doing better or worse. As a privately held company, they're not subject to the same reporting as a publicly held company such as Random House.

In seven years, PA has seen $25 million in revenue, a number close to Random House Inc.'s revenue in 2004.

That seems rather low for Random House. I also note the article was written in 2006.

I just found a Bertelsmann 2004 Annual Report. Random House International revenues were 1.7 billion Euros in 2004, with operating results at 140 million Euros. (Coincidentally, the Euro is worth just about what it was at the end of 2004, so if I worked the calculator right, that's $193 or so odd million - a figure my blonde brain is telling me is more than $25 million.) Now it's possible the $25 million was for US operations alone, but that still seems low. Not with two Dan Brown books on the bestseller lists that year.

The article is unclear as to whether that statement should be attributed directly to PA or whether the reporter dug that number up. Perhaps someone can come up with a better source and prove my math all wet. Hey, I really AM blonde. I could be wrong.
 

swansongunsung

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The journalist in question, Bridgette Harwood, no longer works for the Frederick News Post. Pity, it would have been interesting to ask her what the source was for her info.

Yes, the Random House figures are ridiculously low, but may be technically correct. Since Random House was taken over by Bertelsman, Random House inc (as a legal entity) may now be generated very little revenue. Maybe it has been become a sub-holding with a small number of staff, retained for administrative purposes? A convenient situation for people like Meiners, who can state that PA now has the same revenue as Random House Inc. Technically correct, maybe, but nevertheless totally misleading. But hardly surprising. Cloaking lies with partial truths is what Publish America does better than anyone.

I am surprised Hartwood quoted this Random House figure without comment, because anyone looking at it would do a double-take.

$625 sales per author does not sound unreasonable, given the fact that family and friends will buy the book, and they will buy a few themselves.

This business model is very simple and easy to understand.
 

Terie

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I agree the RH number seems low, but also note that the article says that PA's revenue for SEVEN years was the same as RH's revenue for 2004 (ONE year)....that is, 1/7th.
 

James D. Macdonald

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What's the definition of "close to"?

I live in New Hampshire, but that's close to San Francisco (for some values of "close to"). I mean, I'm closer to California than I am to the moon, and the moon is close to me -- as compared to Jupiter.

My guess? It's something Wild Willie told the reporter, and she didn't check. It isn't unusual for reporters (particularly with small local newspapers) to know nothing whatever about book publishing, and not have time to check everything.

I agree the RH number seems low, but also note that the article says that PA's revenue for SEVEN years was the same as RH's revenue for 2004 (ONE year)....that is, 1/7th.

It didn't say "the same as," it said "close to."

See above, me, the moon, and Jupiter.

$25 million over seven years is $3.5 million a year.

To give you an idea of the scale, the average McDonalds restaurant open at least a year had sales of $2.3 million in 2008. The highest-earning McDonald's restaurant had revenue of $9.5 million.

My guess is that PA had revenue of approximately $5m in 2006. That is to say, while their revenue may have been "close to" Random House's, it was closer to a better than average hamburger stand.
 
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Kirk Fraser

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$25 million over seven years is $3.5 million a year.

Ok then $3.5 Million / 40,000 authors = $87.50
That sounds about right considering many authors are no longer buying or advertizing their books and many like me are generating much more in combined author purchases and customer orders.
 

Bartholomew

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My guess? It's something Wild Willie told the reporter, and she didn't check. It isn't unusual for reporters (particularly with small local newspapers) to know nothing whatever about book publishing, and not have time to check everything.

As a journalist, let me affirm this. The reason I stay away from writing "hard news" is because (other than the fact that I don't believe an unbiased story is possible) I have to take people at their word, and I usually don't know enough about the topic to avoid looking like a moron the next day.

Since I've made copy-editor, I've stopped someone from incorrectly reporting that Bollywood is a traditional Indian dance and another from committing a number of factual errors about a VERY popular video game. I could only do this because I have time, as an editor, to find stuff out--and because I kind of knew better before I double checked.

If a situation arises where neither reporter nor copy-editor have a fuckall clue about what's going on, then the newspaper will happily report any sort of nonsense.