hello friends,
how are you? holding there? keeping your head above water? I also. me too.
You are reading: Why do books go out of print
Instead of engaging in more ~~twitter pitches~~ and such, I wanted to write another do-it-yourself post with information you can actually use, if not now, then someday later. today we’re talking about what it means when your book is “out of stock” and why that doesn’t really mean there are no more books available for purchase. remember: an ebook is forever.
first things first, it used to be pretty easy to tell when a book was out of stock, because, uh, there wouldn’t be any more books in stock to send to stores to buy, the publisher didn’t think hard enough people still wanted it print more. the hard copy was out. do you see how it works? then came e-books and print-on-demand technology, and some publishers, and authors too, rejoiced that now a book never had to go out of print. it can be made available to anyone who wants it at the touch of a button! that’s a good thing, right?
not always.
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When you sign a contract with a traditional publisher, you give them the right to print and sell the book for the term of the copyright (that is, until it falls into the public domain) or until it goes out of print, whichever is sooner. Guess which one is before?
then your agent will make sure your contract defines very clearly what it means for a book to be “in print” (or available for sale, which is the modern term) because you probably don’t want your publisher to have rights to your book in perpetuity. if your contract defines that a book is “in print” if someone somewhere can order an ebook or pod book, then your book will never go out of print, or at least until one of elon musk’s rockets hits the aws servers and lose the internet forever. (knock on wood) why is this bad? you ask. why wouldn’t I want my book to be available forever? because, well, it’s your book. why would you give it away to a publisher forever? you want to have the option of getting those rights back if the book is no longer selling reasonably. You don’t have to ask for your rights back, but you want the option to do so.
Your agent will work to define precisely what it means for a book to be “in print” on your contract. That usually means your book has to sell x copies (usually a couple hundred) over x royalty periods (usually around two, which is 12 months), to be considered still in print. sometimes it’s a dollar amount of revenue earned instead of a number of copies, as well as some other variations from publisher to publisher, but that’s the gist. you’ll want it to explicitly say that the existence of an ebook or pod option alone doesn’t mean your book is “in print.”
You and your agent will keep an eye on your royalty statements, and if things hit the thresholds in your depleted clause, then your agent will request a reversal of rights. this says “hey, we’ve got to what we said in clause 86 or whatever, and we want the rights back, thanks.” no one gets mad about this. if sales are low enough to get to this point, then the publisher is usually not upset about receiving this letter. Besides, contracts aren’t about feelings. besides, it is stated in the contract, so you can do it.
Your contract will also say what happens next. usually the publication has the opportunity to upsell/re-print the book. it takes about six months for them to hit those thresholds again, and if they do, you won’t get your rights back until sales go down again. which is good because your book is selling again! but if they don’t reach those thresholds, you get your rights back. they send you a formal letter and your deal with the publisher is basically done (unless it was a multi-book deal and a few other things your agent will know vary from book to book).
You will only be able to verify these numbers twice a year, when your royalty statement is published. yes i know publishing is a bloody dinosaur when it comes to sales data reporting. but that’s what we have and that’s what your contract will say, so you just have to deal with it.
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and then I… what to do with the rights? you ask. well, that’s up to you. You could self-publish if you wanted. you could update and expand the book if you think it needs it. it’s not very likely that you’ll be able to sell the rights to a traditional publisher unless your circumstances have changed significantly (ie your platform got huge or something, and in that case your book is probably still selling well). A new publisher won’t necessarily be able to remarket your book if it’s already had its day in the sun. but they are your rights, and you can take them back if you want.
However, when you reclaim your rights, you only get what you provided: your text and any images you personally contributed. if you licensed those images from someone else, those rights revert to the rights holder and if you want to use them again, you have to go through the permissions process again for a new edit. if a publisher provided (i.e. paid for) any artwork or images, those rights remain with the publisher and if you wish to use them again, you will have to pay the publisher for them. You also don’t get the rights to use the cover art (because you probably didn’t design it, the publisher did) or the design/interior design, because, again, you didn’t make it. sometimes you can buy the cover or interior design from the publisher, if you really need it.
what about the leftovers? What is that? you ask. Backorder is when a publisher sells excess stock of a book because the book is not selling as quickly and they have a lot of stock in the warehouse. they pay taxes on stock in the warehouse, and they don’t like to have piles and piles of books. As an author, you have the opportunity to buy your own book at a deep discount if you want additional copies, but the rest are offered at bookstores and dollar stores at that deep, deep discount. what doesn’t sell is shredded/destroyed/recycled <single tear emoji>. Just because your book is on hold doesn’t mean it’s out of print, but it does mean sales have slowed. it’s a sign to me that I should keep an eye on royalty statements to see if it’s too soon to file for rights back, but it’s not the only death knell for a book. and the publisher can’t drop a book like five minutes after it’s first published, so don’t worry if he doesn’t sell tons of copies right off the bat, he’s doomed. his contract will also indicate when the books can be returned.
You may never have a book left. you may never claim your rights back if your book goes out of print. but these are things covered in your contract, and it’s nice to know what these things mean, if at least you don’t freak out when am*zon runs out of copies to sell and you think the sky is falling. (it isn’t. most of the time they will order more soon).
Wishing you strong sales (and keep wearing your mask),
kate
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