MSI Press Blog

  Every author dreams of the launch day—the excitement, the buzz, the first reviews, the first sales. Launches matter, of course. But here is the quiet truth publishers wish more authors understood: The real financial strength of a publishing house comes from the backlist. Not the shiny new releases. Not the books with launch parties and press releases. The backlist. The books that have been out for a year, five years, ten years, sometimes twenty. The books that keep selling steadily, month after month, long after the spotlight has moved on. Let’s pull back the curtain on why. What Makes the Backlist So Powerful Backlist titles sell without demanding attention Frontlist books require: Marketing campaigns Launch coordination Media outreach Author events Retail negotiations Backlist books require none of that. They simply exist —and they sell. Backlist sales are predictable A strong backlist title becomes a reliable revenue stream. Publishers can count on: Ste...

  It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic addresses backlists. What are they? Why do publishers use them? What do they mean for authors? What is a backlist? Publishers have a front list of books that they are actively selling. Among these are books that "earn their keep" at the very least (i.e., costs of printing, advertising, promotion, distribution, royalties, warehousing, share of overhead, legal requirements such as copyright and permissions, etc., do not exceed the revenue they produce.  Of course, publishers would prefer that books do more than "earn their keep;" they would like them to make a profit. Working against bo...