The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

The Law and novella

<< < (27/30) > >>

g33k:

--- Quote from: Mira on May 31, 2022, 11:05:08 AM --- All well and good, but milking his fans for every penny he can get isn't the way to go.
--- End quote ---

I think you need to revisit your assumption about Jim's motivations:  the money doesn't add up the way you think it does.

The Law:
26 * $300 = $7,800
2000 * $45 = $90,000
So, just shy of $100K in toto (these are limited print-runs; there's no more blood in that turnip until The Law gets re-released in another format).

Skin Game sold 50K copies in the first week (per a reddit thread, dunno the source of the number, but seems viable).
50,000 * $28 = $1,400,000 in one week.  So more than a tenfold-larger insta-sales... with ongoing sales thereafter (not available to The Law, as noted above) probably doubling that over the course of a few months, amd dribbling off after that.

In both cases, of course, we don't know Jim's share of the price; but since Subterranean Press' collectors'-edition is gonna include color plates, and is a small print-run, I presume their manufacturing costs-per-book are MUCH higher than a mass-market mainstream book.

I'm pretty sure sure Jim is getting less money this way (or at least, getting the money slower).

###

My own WAG -- a realworld WAG vs a Dresdenverse WAG -- is that the issue isn't "revenue" but contracts & "exclusive rights..."  I theorize that Jim has negotiated the end of Subterranean's "exclusive" rights to this novella, so they match closely with the end of a bunch of other anthologized shorts.  So it'll all be available around the same time, for him to produce a new Dresden collection.

But the story is written & available, and big enough to be its own thing; so he releases it in a "deluxe" collectors' edition, and the well-heeled megafans can get their hardcore itch scratched, and Jim gets a bit of revenue, pending the rest of his collection exiting their excusive-first-rights periods.

Mira:

--- Quote from: g33k on June 01, 2022, 02:56:04 AM ---I think you need to revisit your assumption about Jim's motivations:  the money doesn't add up the way you think it does.

The Law:
26 * $300 = $7,800
2000 * $45 = $90,000
So, just shy of $100K in toto (these are limited print-runs; there's no more blood in that turnip until The Law gets re-released in another format).

Skin Game sold 50K copies in the first week (per a reddit thread, dunno the source of the number, but seems viable).
50,000 * $28 = $1,400,000 in one week.  So more than a tenfold-larger insta-sales... with ongoing sales thereafter (not available to The Law, as noted above) probably doubling that over the course of a few months, amd dribbling off after that.

In both cases, of course, we don't know Jim's share of the price; but since Subterranean Press' collectors'-edition is gonna include color plates, and is a small print-run, I presume their manufacturing costs-per-book are MUCH higher than a mass-market mainstream book.

I'm pretty sure sure Jim is getting less money this way (or at least, getting the money slower).

###

My own WAG -- a realworld WAG vs a Dresdenverse WAG -- is that the issue isn't "revenue" but contracts & "exclusive rights..."  I theorize that Jim has negotiated the end of Subterranean's "exclusive" rights to this novella, so they match closely with the end of a bunch of other anthologized shorts.  So it'll all be available around the same time, for him to produce a new Dresden collection.

But the story is written & available, and big enough to be its own thing; so he releases it in a "deluxe" collectors' edition, and the well-heeled megafans can get their hardcore itch scratched, and Jim gets a bit of revenue, pending the rest of his collection exiting their excusive-first-rights periods.

--- End quote ---

Then it makes even less sense...

g33k:

--- Quote from: Mira on June 01, 2022, 04:31:21 AM --- Then it makes even less sense...

--- End quote ---
See my "realworld WAG" at the end of my post.
It's about contractual timings, and the next Dresden-shorts-collection.

Mira:

--- Quote from: g33k on June 01, 2022, 06:56:14 AM ---See my "realworld WAG" at the end of my post.
It's about contractual timings, and the next Dresden-shorts-collection.

--- End quote ---

Jim has something to do with those contracts, they do not happen in a void.. 

Fcrate:
Your calculations don't take into account either the profit margin, or the turnover rate.
the signed-lettered-hardcover are much more profitable than paperback. They also take a long time to turn in revenue. The limited edition thing is a significant amount of cash in more or less 3 days.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

Go to full version