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Another book editor? Well, there’s a lot that goes into this process — from figuring out layout to determining what which book will be profitable. 

Andrea Rotando has been a book editor for Barnes & Nobel and Sterling Publishing since 2001. She’s also an experienced travel writer and the editor of Luxury Cruise Bible. In our interview, she talks about calculating the profit/loss for a book — a reality check for any book author!

Can you explain what you do for a living? 

I always knew I wanted to be in a creative field, but I never guessed that I’d end up in book publishing. I moved to New York City in 1991 with a music degree under my belt. I worked at recording studios until I segued into the magazine business by way of Pro Sound News and Musician magazines. Those experiences jump-started by passion for publishing and in 2007 I segued from magazine publishing to book publishing.

I joined Barnes & Noble in 2007 as a senior editor. I acquire, develop, and shepherd the production of projects for the Sterling Innovation and Fall River Press imprints. Both of those Sterling Publishing imprints exist with the express mission of creating proprietary books and kits (book + components) for the value section of Barnes & Noble stores.

I look to acquire books that will appeal to a broad section of Barnes & Noble’s customers and I also license existing content to create new packages of old favorites from third-party vendors. I work on a wide variety of topics, from crafts to cookbooks to light reference to military history.

As a hands-on editor, I’m involved in every aspect of a book’s creation, from contract negotiation to manuscript development to supervising copy editors and proofreaders and being the liaison with the production, design, and sales teams. I also supervise and mentor junior editors on the team.

Andrea Rotondo

When do you use basic math in your job?  

Basic math comes to the rescue in so many ways in my job. One major way I use math is to devise and monitor project schedules. One of my responsibilities is to make sure books arrive at each Barnes & Noble store on time. This is incredibly important since promotional tables for our products are set up at the front of each store on a certain date each month and a new batch of books are displayed. If a book doesn’t hit that table on time, the company loses sales. Not only don’t we earn money for that book, we’ve undersold the capability of that table and that means our department will be under its revenue goals for the month.

I use math to calculate the length of time each part of the book creation process takes and I assign those tasks accordingly. When something goes wrong, I look at the timeline and see where it can be expanded or contracted.

Do you use any technology (like calculators or computers) to help with this math?  

Sterling Publishing uses a proprietary online profit and loss (p&l) system. This is where we can log on to create or update the p&l statement for each book. The p&l includes fields for costs such as the advance to the author and his or her royalty rate as well as hard costs like editing, design, printing, and freight. The system automatically calculates the margin of the product. If the project doesn’t hit a certain acceptable margin, we don’t move forward.

I have to admit though that I often whip up “back of napkin” p&ls before going to the official system. This helps me get a sense of where the product margin is and where I have to work to trim expenses before committing to official paperwork.

How do you think math helps you do your job better? 

Math is like insurance. As long as I have the raw data about a project (advance, royalty rate, number of first printing units, print costs, etc.), I can calculate if that project will be a financial success (i.e., “make its margin”). Without math, there would be a lot of guesswork as to which projects would earn out and which wouldn’t.

How comfortable with math do you feel?  Does this math feel different to you?  (In other words, is it easier to do this math at work or do you feel relatively comfortable with math all the time?) 

Math has never been one of my strong suits but I like numbers, especially as they relate to the economic health of a project. I love being able to look at a project’s data and see where the opportunities are for the author and company to make a buck.

What kind of math did you take in high school?  Did you like it/feel like you were good at it? 

I don’t feel that I received an adequate education in regards to math while in high school. The courses were very basic. In college, I struggled with calculus. I’ve definitely become more comfortable with math, but I wish I had a more solid foundation from which to build.

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do the math you use in your job? Or was it something that you could pick up using the skills you learned in school? 

A basic knowledge of addition/subtraction is really all any editor needs.

Any questions for Andrea? Ask in the comments section!

Photo courtesy of Jain Basil Aliyas

So let’s say you got a book deal. Yay! Have that glass of wine or virgin daiquiri — and then it’s time to get down to business. How much can you actually earn from this venture?

If you’re new to publishing, you may not know how you’ll earn a check from a book deal. With the advent of self-publishing and ebooks, there are many different models. Still, many publishers depend on the tried and true advance-royalty model. But how does this work?

First the writer gets an advance. This is a lump sum — sometimes paid in installments — that is paid to the writer before the book is published. This figure can vary widely, from $0 to a seven-figure value. It’s based on the author’s expertise, reader demand and expected sales. That means J.K. Rowling is going to earn a higher advance than a funny, charming math geek.

The advance is exactly what it sounds like — an upfront fee based on what the publisher thinks the book will earn. So you’ll get paid for your time writing the book, even though the publisher isn’t earning anything yet.

Royalties are what you’ll earn from the book sales — usually a percent of the price of the book. But there are lots of things to consider here, like how much a bookstore actually pays for the book.

Here’s the catch: you’ll need to earn out your advance, before you start getting royalties. In other words, you won’t see a dime from your publisher until after your royalties equal the advance you were paid. (And sadly, some books never do this.)

Whew! And you thought all you’d have to do is write the darned thing!

Any experienced writer will warn you: read your contract carefully before signing. I’ll go one step further: do the math. (Surprise!)

What you want to know is the number of books you have to sell before you actually earn some cash. If that number is in the stratsophere — or your advance is really low — you may want to shop around. (Then again, there’s something to be said for taking a risk or enjoying a labor of love.)

Mathematically speaking, there are several variables: the amount of your advance, price of the book, royalty percent and the number of books you’ll need to sell to earn out. The advance, book price and royalty percent are set. What you need to know is the number of books you need to sell.  Let’s look at a simple example:

June has been shopping around Physics for Grownups for several years. She’s convinced that she has a great idea, if she can only find the right publisher. Lo and behold, on her 17th try, she finds a publisher who is interested. The contract offers a $5,000 advance and 5% royalty. The book is priced at $12.99.

Is this a good deal?

June is no dummy. She knows that a physics book isn’t likely to be a best seller. Still, she doesn’t want to spend weeks and weeks writing if she’s not likely to see any profit. Based on the contract, how many books would she need to sell to earn out her advance?

She will earn 5% on each $12.99 book. (That’s assuming that all books are purchased at the cover price.)

$12.99 x 0.05 = $0.65

In other words, June will earn $0.65 per book. To find out her break-even point, she needs to divide her advance by the amount she’ll earn per book:

$5,000 ÷ $0.65 = 7592.3

So, June will need to sell 7,593 books before she will even get a royalty check. That’s a lot of books.

Only June can decide if this is worth it. Some books are like tortoises — they make slow and steady progress, while other books are flashes in the pan. If June plays her cards right, she could do just fine over a long period of time. The math can only give her the cold, hard details.

Have you published a book? If so, what went into your decision to take the leap? Did you do the math or just decide it was worth it regardless? Share your ideas in the comments section.

Photo courtesy of shutterhacks

So you’ve got a brand new book on your nightstand or electronic reader. Or maybe you have a book idea that you’d love to get published. How on earth does an idea get translated to pages or bytes? A book editor could play a big role. Jennifer Lawler was my editor for Math for Grownups, and these days, she’s the imprint manager for Adams Media’s new direct-to-ebook romance imprint. Today, she answers the big question we have here on Mondays: How do you use math in your job?

Can you explain what you do for a living?

I’m an imprint manager for a book publishing company, which means I acquire books from writers based on what we think our readers will want to read. Then I shepherd the books through the entire editorial and production process, which includes everything from negotiating contracts to approving cover design to making sure the publicity department is doing its job. My job constantly switches from big-picture items like “How  does our imprint differentiate itself from other imprints like it?” to nitty-gritty items like “did that copy editor ever send over her invoice?”

When do you use basic math in your job?

I have a set budget for producing each title, but not all titles are alike, so they require different amounts of money. I have to make sure that each book gets what it needs without going over the budget as a whole, and also without being really out of whack for any one title. This is very similar to keeping a household budget and balancing a checkbook.

For nonfiction print books, I have to calculate how to make them fit into the allotted page count we have for them. At my company, page count is determined at the time a book is signed, based on the type of book it is, what the cover price will be, and other factors. Since nonfiction books are sold on proposal, not finished product, the finished product can vary significantly from what we assumed it would be at the time of signing. So I have to figure out what we can do to make the book fit. Can we add pages to the index, or subtract pages from the index? Can we add or subtract front matter? Can we go up to 2-page chapter openers or down to 1-page part openers? We can’t go over or under more than 16 pages for any project. Usually it’s not a big problem but sometimes you should see my desperation!

Do you use any technology to help with this math?

We use a special calculator based on trim size to estimate how many words per page, taking design considerations into account (lots of sidebars or illustrations mean fewer words on each page). For the budget, I just use a spreadsheet. This just helps make sure simple errors in addition or subtraction don’t through the whole process off.

How do you think math helps you do your job better?

On a fundamental level, if I don’t do the math right, the company and everyone in it suffers. We miss our projections, we overrun our budgets, we even screw up our earnings. That’s a big deal. It also helps me be creative and to make better judgment calls. If I find myself saying, “Well, it doesn’t really matter if this one book doesn’t fit the page count, I can just get the publisher to change the page count,” I know I’m being lazy. Maybe that is what has to happen sometimes, but that type of change directly impacts our profit-and-loss statement for the title, so it has to be the last resort. Same with the budget. “Well, the publisher isn’t going to kill me if I go over by a little bit.” That’s true, but it’s a lazy way of thinking. Doing the math makes me think about what I need to do differently to hit the budget. In some instances, yes, the budget simply needs to be bigger. But it could mean I need to watch what I acquire so I’m not picking up things with potential but that require a ton of editing. It could mean I need to streamline a process somewhere or develop a template instead of doing some type of custom approach each time.

Math adds a lot of clarity to my work—something I never thought a book editor would say!

How comfortable with math do you feel?

I am pretty comfortable with math except when I am put on the spot (like someone asking me point-blank to answer a math question). I find the math at work to be easy in the sense that I’m confident about not making mistakes with it. I do it in the privacy of my office, so if I have to check my calculations five different times to make sure I’ve got them right, I do it.

What kind of math did you take in high school?

I got as far as Algebra II and felt like a complete idiot by that point.

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do the math you use in your job?

I had to get over my fear of “oh my god I will screw up the math and they’ll kick me out and I love this job!” Other than that, though, the math is straightforward—definitely something a high-school kid could do. Probably a third-grader could do it

Thanks for playing with us today, Jennifer!  If any of you dear readers are interested in writing and publishing a book, check out Jennifer’s great book proposal class.  (I can recommend it from personal experience!) Or feel free to ask her a question in the comments section.

Photo courtesy of KungPaoCajun

This has been a very weird four days.

First, I found out that USA Weekend— the weekly newspaper supplement that appears in more than 800 newspapers in the U.S. and is read by 4.7 million people each week — published a cool, little story about Math for Grownups this weekend.  “Man,” I thought. “This is great!”

Then I read the first and only (at the time) comment:

In “Benefits vs. Raise” I am surprised you made the common mistake of thinking you will make less money if you get a raise. If you move to a higher tax bracket it is only the incremental money that is taxed at the higher rate. You should print a correction.

See explanation here

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/04/27/dont-fear-the-higher-tax-bracket-or-why-a-reader-needs-more-cowbell/

Long story short: my explanation in Math for Grownups is correct.  Sadly, for Gregory Connolly, the reporter who wrote this otherwise really nice story, some of the information in the article was not.  In a few days the geeky little corner of the blogosphere that pays attention to these things went nuts.  I’ve gotten emails, nasty tweets and more — even after I posted what I think is a very level-headed response to the original comment, letting readers know that the error was the reporter’s. And even after USA Weekend posted an excerpt from my book that explains (correctly) how math and the tax system work in this situation.*

Today, more people took notice, with a blog post on Huffington Post (USA Today Fails Math for Grownups), Daily Kos (According to USA Today’s Logic, You Should Ask Your Boss for a Pay Cut) and The Columbia Journalism Review (A More than Marginally Embarrassing Mistake).

Hoo-wee!  When math, taxes and mistaken reporting collide, sparks fly!

I’m still trying to figure out if this is a good thing for me or a bad thing. (Is any publicity good publicity?) But this whole experience illustrates a few interesting points:

1. Math matters.  When you think that you don’t need to understand how math applies to the tax code, think again, my sister and brother.  I’ve got dozens of internet commenters and tweeters begging to convince you differently.  And quite honestly, they’re not as nice as I am.

2.  It’s critical to check your assumptions. I’m convinced that Mr. Connolly wouldn’t have made the same mistake had he really considered what he was writing.  Yes, it’s a common mistake and even an element of misinformed political rhetoric to believe that a raise could actually be bad for a person.  But really?  Does that make sense?  Just like with math problems, checking to see if the answer is reasonable can save anyone from a lot of heartache.  (And I’m thinking this reporter has had at least some heartache this week.)

3.  There’s good reason that people are scared of math — big, mean, know-it-alls shame us into believing that a simple misunderstanding or mistake will bring down entire civilizations, crush the delicate sensibilities of our dear children and bring us perilously close to either left- or right-wing political domination.  In other words, if we don’t get every single syllable and number absolutely correct, we are wrong, wrong, wrong and nothing can save us from eternal shame and damnation.

(How many of you felt this way in school?)

But whether or not these internet commenters, bloggers and tweeters would like to admit it, not much about math will cause such drastic, awful consequences.  Sure, there may plenty of people more than willing to shout, “YOU’RE WRONG!” rather than admit that they, too, sometimes feel like math is hard and the tax system can be difficult to comprehend.  But in the end, I’m here to say that the basic math that most of us have to do everyday both matters and won’t kill you.

The fact that I’m still alive, sober and writing about this after the frenetic tongue lashing I’ve received over the last few days is testament to this.  You can survive making math mistakes (or other’s math mistakes).  And I honestly hope that someone is telling the poor Gregory Connolly this very thing.

So let’s fess up.  What was your last math mistake? Did it cause the ground to open up and swallow up innocent puppies and kittens? Or did you just lose a little cash or miss the previews at a movie or put too much fertilizer on your lawn?

Share your math horror stories in the comments section.

*Update: USA Weekend is continuing to finesse its response to this situation.  The last section of the article has now been rewritten to correct the mistake, and the excerpt from my book has been removed.

Photo courtesy of cogdogblog

Today, I’m visiting Frisco Kids, a blog written by my friend and fellow freelancer, Debbie Abrams Kaplan. She has posted a Q&A with me about Math for Grownupsand as well as my thoughts about kids and math.  I hope you’ll visit and even post a comment!

Q&A — Math for Grownups by Laura Laing

By the way, would you like me to guest post at your blog?  Or do you know of a blog that I would fit right in with? I’ve got lots of ideas to share with anyone who will listen! And I promise I’m a good guest.  I wipe out the sink after I brush my teeth and don’t mind if the cat sleeps on my pillow.  Get the details here

For those who have pre-ordered Math for Grownups from Amazon, it looks like it’s headed for your mailbox early! This is from a friend:

Email from Amazon says to anticipate an earlier delivery of your book– between June 22-25 instead of mid-July!

Wowee!

In fact, Amazon and Barnes and Noble are showing that it’s in stock.

If you haven’t ordered your very own copy, you can do it here: Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

It was just a little brown box on my porch.  Inside were ten copies of Math for Grownups.

Unlike the baby I had nearly 11 years ago, I had no clue this one was on its way.  The book doesn’t hit the shelves until July 18, but this novice book author had no idea about advance copies. Duh.

I have to say that these little guys are just about as adorable as my daughter.  (Okay, not nearly as adorable, but still.)  The cover is like a composition notebook with a rough feel — really neat.  And it’s not a huge, intimidating tome, like lots of math books are.

Great day here at my house.  My first baby graduated elementary school and my other baby landed on my doorstep.  Time to celebrate!