It's all 'bout the money

[yoniy0]

Hi all. This thread is a call for informed perspectives on the costs of the publishing business. For quite some time now, I've noted my absolute lack of objective knowledge in this field -- it's very hard to come by trustworthy information. However, past discussions have indicated that among my fellow DMers are several insiders of the publishing business, and it's you that I'd like to ask for help here.

 

Before I begin, I have to admit that, naturally, my interest in this topic stems from my distrust of some of the players in the field. That being said, I'll really appreciate it if you keep on topic, and refrain from any mention of the agency model, DoJ antitrust action, or DRM. I've been on record on some of these topics in other threads, as I'm sure some of you guys have as well, but going into that here will only defeat the purpose -- to give every one of us some knowledge of the inner-workings of the publishing world.

 

So, here's the gist of my request: I'd basically like to know how much it costs to publish a book.

From what I gather, spendings divide between fixed costs and per-book costs. Here are the categories I've come by, courtesy of Google, the NYT and others. Please feel free to suggest additional ones and/or fill in the blanks:

 

Per-book costs

• Printing, storing and shipping: as far as I can tell, these costs usually change between 3-3.5$ per book.
  
• Author royalties: this is a good place to say that I don't fully understand whether most authors simply receive royalties per sale, a predetermined advance, or both. Still, I've seen assessments in the area of 15-25% of consumer price, meaning about 2.5-3.5$ per book (I realize this is a gross estimate, not taking into account medium or popularity of the book, but at least it gives us something to work with).
  

Fixed costs

• Author rights: in this category goes any advance or fixed payment the publisher might make to the author, as well as anything s/he might receive for the rights to sell their intellectual property. Again, I have no idea what sort of sum we're talking about, nor whether these costs are given merely as an advance on royalties, or as a separate payment.
  
• Editing: in this category I include the cost of a decent editorial staff, including beta-readers and everything else that's required to achieve a polished final product. It will naturally need to be calculated based on the number of projects each editor can handle simultaneously relative to their usual salary, and as such will probably also be highly speculative. That's okay, I'm just looking for a ball-parking here. I've seen estimates at about .8$ per book, but I don't know how that was calculated.
  
• Proof-edits, design and typesetting: this will include whatever is needed to make to product presentable to the customer from the physical perspective. Same reservations apply.
  
• Marketing: again, ball-park this for me, if you can. As before, NYT suggested a publisher might put as much as 1$ per estimated sale into this category, but I don't know how they came by that number.
  
• Overheads: support-staff salaries, electricity, etc. divided across how many projects a publisher can handle concurrently.
  

If at all possible, I'd love to know where you get your data from, though I don't mind taking you guys at your word (that is, except in the unfortunate event that some you might have conflicting ideas). And, that's it, except to thank anyone who can help me with this. May you always find water and shade.