Calling all Sports Publishing LLC authors

Another question - what does happen with the existing books and those in the pipeline if a publisher such as this goes BK?

Thanks

 

I've had excellent and awful experiences with a string of publishers. The SP experience was generally good on the front end, but the marketing/support was unimpressive. It sucks that all is falling down like this.

 

A friend of mine signed a contract with a small publisher (much smaller than SPLLC). They decided to cancel their sports division, so his books are indeed toast.

 

Here's the problem with publishers like SP: the publishing philosophy is "feed the beast". It's a publishing sweatshop

Doing 100 plus books a year, mostly midlist books with smallish printings is a labour intensive approach to publishing but from a business point of view it's a good way of managing risk--which is what publishing is all about.

Here's a couple of business models. Both companies project sales of around $5 million.

Publisher A: Most of the books they do have an average print run of 10,000 copies, with an average transfer price (selling price to booksellers, etc) of $15.00. Each book generates on average $150,000 in revenue.

In order to achieve the $5 million in net sales, A will need to publish a minimum of 34 books. That doesn't even take into account a returns provision so it's probably more like 50 books.

Publisher B: This is the big risk taker.

Goal is to generate the same sales but is going after brand name, best-selling authors with a track record.

First printing for each book is on average 75,000 copies. Transfer price is $15.00

To reach the $5 million sales goal, B will have to publish approximately 6 books--- taking the returns factor into account.

You have the same sales at the end of the day, but Publisher A's overhead is dramatically higher thn Publisher B and the amount you can allocate to promotion for individual books is minimal.

If the industry average of 6% is still viable, Publisher A can budget approximately $9,000 per book for promotion, publicity and advertising. Not a helluva lot you can do with that which is why, as FoF explains, it's the author who has to become an active partner in the process.

Publisher B on the other hand can allocate between $65,000 and $75,000 per book.

If you sign up with Publisher A, and expect to receive the marketing treatment of Publisher B you are totally unrealistic.

Now, the flip side is this: if three or four of publisher A's book flop, it's not a big financial hit.
However, if three of Publisher B's books bite the dust, say goodnight.

These are extreme--but not totally fictional examples. I

 

Has anyone had luck making contact with SP recently? In the least, they owe me a sales report. I had one email reponse in June saying they would get that report to me within days, but every phone call and email since has gone unanswered.

Not that I'm expecting much. Their report for the first six months of sales showed a grand total of four books sold. That's right, FOUR. I've spoken to local booksellers who've ordered, sold out and re-ordered the book, and I've attended signings where dozens were sold.

 

In bankruptcy, books in inventory are now under control of the court trustee, alongwith however many other assets there are out there, and are used to entice buyers, with proceeds used to help pay down creditors. Not much--maybe a nickel on the dollar, and that depend on who's first in line, second, etc.

 

If they go bankrupt, the authors are probably last in line.

 

S-c-r-e-w-e-d.

 

Which is why I suggested to accept the deal being offered. Better than nothing.

As for Mr. Emberson, I wish you good luck with finding a suitor for your manuscript. There will be other publishing options available soon for those interested in authoring sports books.

 

No doubt you know better than anyone here what the real story is, so I have to ask this:

If SP is truly offering 10 cents on the dollar, and let's face it, they weren't paying too much in the first place, how much can any individual actually be owed? Is a couple hundred bucks worth relinquishing all rights and future claims?

If, for example, the existing titles are sold as assets, the new owner would be assuming those contracts and would be on the hook for future payments, yes? From what I understand just from this thread, anyone who signs the proposed offer would be giving up all claims to those existing contracts.

Am I misunderstanding something?

 

Thanks, I appreciate that. I'm already digging through my vast library of local baseball books and creating a spreadsheet of publishers that might be suitable.

This thread has been extremely valuable in creating a checklist in that search, such as number of books published versus revenue, etc.

By the way, that detailed D&B report cost about a little bit, but it was well worth it. I consider it insurance. I'm concerned for the two local authors who have published with SPLLC - are they likely to know about the company's impending and continued slide? Is there a way for them to salvage their rights to their work? One wrote a standalone book, and one wrote one of the series books.

(I'm a she, but that's okay - I know it's impossible to tell from my name! ;D)

Thanks again for the great board, and I'll create a profile and post in the newbie section as soon as I'm done editing (only 8 pages to go before the next batch comes in).