Calvin and Hobbes By the Numbers

Although I saw this article as a positive in that it indicated a demand for the Complete Calvin and Hobbes book about which I think some small doubt lingered, Andrews McMeel's CEO Thomas Thornton seemed to think it called into question his company's ability to handle such a large, prestige project and wrote a strong letter to The Book Standard objecting to characterizations in the story.

The whole thing should be read by anyone interested in the strip-book publishing business, but the best thing about it is that Thornton lobs numbers at the article's writer.

Thus we learn:

* Andrews McMeel feels the book may be slightly underpriced at $150 because of the cost involved in its production.
* First three weeks on BookScan shows unit sales of 34,329.
* A 250,000-copy print run is confirmed.
* The print run had to be set in December 2004 because a commitment to the paper needs was required at that time.
* Many details about the physical materials that went into that initial print run.
* Total sales of The Complete Far Side: 326,000 copies.

Wanted: more angry CEOs.
 
posted 6:19 am PST | Permalink
 

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