In the months after September 11, the promise to donate the proceeds of books that pertain to the tragedy has become common among publishers. But for all the superficial similarities of these pledges, the amount of money--if any--that houses are actually committing to different charities varies greatly, as publishers fight as intense a battle with a tough economy as they do with their consciences.
Some houses are donating all profits, and estimate that figure to be in the low-to-mid six figures. But many others boasting about their efforts are relying mostly on the author's contribution, or are donating only a small portion of profits, or are setting a break-even point so high that profits--and hence donations--become rather elusive.
For Financial Security in Troubled Times (HarperBusiness) author Ric Edelman will donate both his advance and royalties, but the publisher, which already has a company-wide donation initiative, will not contribute. The same holds at Norton, which is releasing Gillian Zoe Segal's New York Characters (the donation blurb is in its press materials, but not on the jacket).
On the other hand, Abrams will donate $8 for every copy sold of its photo collection September 11, 2001: New York Attacked, which amounts to pretty much all its revenue after manufacturing costs are subtracted. Many of the New York magazine photographers whose work appears in the book have not taken their usual fees. Similarly, Zondervan will contribute all royalties for 775,000 copies of its special edition of Philip Yancey's Where Is God When It Hurts , a figure it puts in the $200,000-$300,000 range.
In addition to contributing all profits from books it sells directly off its site, BookSurge, publisher of 9/11 8:48, the collection edited by online community BlueEar.com and professors at NYU Journalism school, will donate profits from books it sells through bookstores. However, how much that will come to--after the costs of new software and the production of 500 galleys are factored in--remains unclear. The publisher says it hopes to earn "a small profit" on these sales.
A host of publishers are donating only a small percentage of profits. Little, Brown will donate 10% of the list price of its collection One Nation, compiled by the editors of Life. (Publisher AOL Time Warner has already contributed several million dollars as a corporate donation.) The little-known Bollix Books will kick in the same slice for its Terrorism Factbook.
Perhaps no publisher illustrates the economics-vs.-altruism quandary more clearly than PowerHouse Books. The photography publisher admitted it's had a rough go of it in the current climate, but really wanted to do something that mattered.
"Our segment of the book industry was doing godawful even before September 11. But if this book sells out [its 100,000-copy printing], we'll retain enough to survive," said publisher Dan Power. PowerHouse will kick in $5 for each copy sold for its collection of Magnum photographs, but there's a bit of a catch. The press had originally set the price to booksellers (before discounts) at $24.95, and asked the booksellers to sell it at $29.95, with the $5 differential going to charity. But some retailers were uncomfortable with this arrangement--they were already being asked to sell nonreturnable--so PowerHouse upped the price to booksellers to $29.95 and will donate $5 from the higher price.
As all these publishers make their decisions over what is right and what makes accounting sense, some are questioning the need to announce a donation in the first place. While these blurbs reassure nervous publishers and make the industry feel relevant, there is the possibility, said these insiders, of too much hand-wringing. "The tragedy is no reason why we should give up what we do, and that's put out books about issues of consequence in a traditional, business-like manner," said Public Affairs publisher Peter Osnos.
Osnos suggested to Lynn Sherr, author of America the Beautiful, and to the editors of How Did This Happen, Gideon Rose and James Hoge, that they should feel free to donate separately. (Tom Brokaw, who penned the intro to the latter title, told the house to send his check directly to the Committee to Protect Journalists.) But concerned about it appearing to be "a sales hook," Osnos put no announcement in his book. Instead, the house ran an ad in PW recommending America the Beautiful as well as a number of bookseller-endorsed titles from other presses.
