Hi. I got my royalty check today. I thought I would break it down for everyone, since many of you shared in the book-making or book-buying experience. First off, we sold 563 books. Yay! Then 39 were returned. Boo! Total sold, that stayed sold: 524. Now, as you all know, the cover price is an astonishing $35. So, $35 x 524 books gets us $18,340. Then there’s this black box where we convert this number to the “net proceeds” which is, as my letter helpfully tells me, is gross receipts minus refunds. The letter does not explain “gross receipts.” The letter does say that the amount of money I get is not a percentage of the list price of my book, because of discounts and so forth. Net proceeds are $14,659, roughly 80% of the cover price. Katia and I get 10% of this. I get 50% of that. Beers are on me next time you guys are in town.
there are NO library jobs… I repeat….
Placement stats from ALAs report on Midwinter. Jobs down almost 40%, job seekers up almost 40%.
“Jobs: 196 (The highest number, 31, was for general reference positions.) This compared to 318 jobs last year in New Orleans. Job-seekers: 293 (The highest number, 203, interested in reference positions.) This compared to 214 job-seekers in New Orleans.” [thanks tj]
not your usual dumb library headline
Squirrels in the library.
Our library’s motto: If you cannot read while nuts are being cracked, help crack nuts.[thanks lis]
one big U’s approach to the serials crisis
Miss Eli shares a Stanford University Libraries memo regarding strategies for trying to staunch the hemorrhaging serials budget.
“Libraries are encouraged to scrutinize the pricing of journals and to drop those where pricing decisions have made them disproportionately expensive compared to their educational and research value. Special attention should be paid to for-profit journals in general and to those published by Elsevier in particular.”
e-books by cory doctorow
Ebooks: Neither E nor Books, a discussion of Ebooks and copyright by Cory Doctorow.
“This isn’t to say that copyright is bad, but that there’s such a
thing as good copyright and bad copyright, and that sometimes,
too much good copyright is a bad thing. It’s like chilis in soup:
a little goes a long way, and too much spoils the broth.”
thing as good copyright and bad copyright, and that sometimes,
too much good copyright is a bad thing. It’s like chilis in soup:
a little goes a long way, and too much spoils the broth.”