Making a living from publishing books is hard work. The trick is (both if you are a publisher and a writer) producing quite a number of books that backlist. For those of you not familiar with the word backlist, it means that they continue selling well after their publication date. Good examples of backlisting books are: The Bible, Annabel Karmel's book for feeding babies and toddlers (there's always a constantly rolling market of new mothers), Collins Gem SAS Survival Guide. If these were books in your publishing company, these would be cash cows, reliable producers of dosh. Every three year or four years you could bring out a new edition with a different cover that would draw in new readers.
Frontlist titles (which means that they have just been published and have an exposure life of 6 months if you are very lucky), will hopefully include a bestseller. Bestsellers cannot be predicted, they just happen. If you are a good publisher, your gut feeling might lead you to believe that you have hit the publishing jackpot. If you are a bad publisher, you will be aping the publishing jackpot but it will be too late. That is bandwagon or copycat publishing.
The jackpot frontlist title brings in lots of dosh which can be a bad thing for a publisher. They then hire more people, publish more books along the lines of 'Let's throw it at the wall and see what sticks.' Never a good idea.
At least that is my take on mainstream publishing. For small fry like me and Linen Press, it is unlikely we will make vast sums of money (if any at all). Unless we work hard to haul in readers from the web. There are just not enough terrestrial bookshops for all our wares to be displayed.
So if you are thinking of setting up as a publisher, think long and hard about what you will charge. Here is an interesting article from the Guardian written by the director of Linen Press who bemoans selling through Amazon. However, for most small publishers, Amazon is a godsend.
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