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Make a Killing on Stephen King
If you are Stephen King’s number-one fan, would you pay $2,500 for a signed, limited edition of his new book, Doctor Sleep?
Don’t think about it too long, because the print run of 52 books sold out in 75 minutes.
The book has a lot going for it. For one thing, if King doesn’t have the largest following among A-list writers, he certainly has the most passionate base. Doctor Sleep is also the sequel to one of the most iconic franchises in horror — The Shining. On top of that, the book is housed in a custom deluxe box.
One more thing: The book won’t be published until September. Buyers paid a total of $130,000 to place pre-orders.
Cemetery Dance, the Forest Hill, Md., publisher of the limited edition of Doctor Sleep, is one of the small presses at the forefront of producing instant rarities with their titles.
“We’ve been publishing limited editions in the 500-to-2,000 copy range since 1992, and the market has stayed fairly strong even when the economy hasn’t been chugging along,” says Brian James Freeman, the managing editor. “We have witnessed other presses come and go over the years, but we have a strong base of collectors who have seen us through good times and bad.”
Producing books that tap into underserved demand is the name of the game for a publisher of print books in these perilous times, what with Barnes & Noble (ticker: BKS) pruning back on locations while it and Amazon.com (AMZN) continue to push digital formats.
By their nature small presses are potentially ephemeral businesses in the business of ephemera. It important for them to meet demand from their audience without overstepping. Unsold books mean lost money. Better to sell out an entire run that will leave some potential customers out in the cold. In other words, those lucky enough to purchase a limited edition by their favorite author will usually have an opportunity to resell the book to another fan, sometimes at a large markup.
Consider Cemetery Dance’s 25th anniversary special limited edition of It by King, published in December 2011. The gift edition, which included a new afterword from the author in addition to new artwork and a slipcase, was limited to a run of 2,750 and priced at $125. Not even two years later, the book can fetch about $200 on eBay — a healthy 60% gain.
>>> Read more...
Don’t think about it too long, because the print run of 52 books sold out in 75 minutes.
The book has a lot going for it. For one thing, if King doesn’t have the largest following among A-list writers, he certainly has the most passionate base. Doctor Sleep is also the sequel to one of the most iconic franchises in horror — The Shining. On top of that, the book is housed in a custom deluxe box.
One more thing: The book won’t be published until September. Buyers paid a total of $130,000 to place pre-orders.
Cemetery Dance, the Forest Hill, Md., publisher of the limited edition of Doctor Sleep, is one of the small presses at the forefront of producing instant rarities with their titles.
“We’ve been publishing limited editions in the 500-to-2,000 copy range since 1992, and the market has stayed fairly strong even when the economy hasn’t been chugging along,” says Brian James Freeman, the managing editor. “We have witnessed other presses come and go over the years, but we have a strong base of collectors who have seen us through good times and bad.”
Producing books that tap into underserved demand is the name of the game for a publisher of print books in these perilous times, what with Barnes & Noble (ticker: BKS) pruning back on locations while it and Amazon.com (AMZN) continue to push digital formats.
By their nature small presses are potentially ephemeral businesses in the business of ephemera. It important for them to meet demand from their audience without overstepping. Unsold books mean lost money. Better to sell out an entire run that will leave some potential customers out in the cold. In other words, those lucky enough to purchase a limited edition by their favorite author will usually have an opportunity to resell the book to another fan, sometimes at a large markup.
Consider Cemetery Dance’s 25th anniversary special limited edition of It by King, published in December 2011. The gift edition, which included a new afterword from the author in addition to new artwork and a slipcase, was limited to a run of 2,750 and priced at $125. Not even two years later, the book can fetch about $200 on eBay — a healthy 60% gain.
>>> Read more...
Comments
To each their own.