Serpent Moon is not a risky book from a brand-new author. It's the twelfth book from an established writing team, eighth in its specific series.
Based on the previous seven books from the same authors in the same series, its sales should be rather predictable. If it can't pull its own weight at those numbers, covering its own costs and turning a profit without subsidies from other books, there's no reason in the world to bother publishing it. The authors have had eleven chances already; if they aren't yet proved to be profitable to publish the way Macmillan is publishing them, giving them a twelfth chance would be stupid.
Now, it might well be that there are special circumstances that allow this particular book to be profitable without hardcover sales, windowing, or the like to supplement the profit on a paperback price $6.99. But Macmillan has not yet presented any explanation for this.
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Dominion, apparently, was originally released in 1982, so including it above was a mistake on my part.
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Based on the previous seven books from the same authors in the same series, its sales should be rather predictable. If it can't pull its own weight at those numbers, covering its own costs and turning a profit without subsidies from other books, there's no reason in the world to bother publishing it. The authors have had eleven chances already; if they aren't yet proved to be profitable to publish the way Macmillan is publishing them, giving them a twelfth chance would be stupid.
Now, it might well be that there are special circumstances that allow this particular book to be profitable without hardcover sales, windowing, or the like to supplement the profit on a paperback price $6.99. But Macmillan has not yet presented any explanation for this.
--
Dominion, apparently, was originally released in 1982, so including it above was a mistake on my part.