THE CAREER NOVELIST
your shelf and sell three of them, that is an efficient use of your
space. If, though, you have four and sell two... well, that is at least
average. But if you have four and sell one—heck, what would you
do? Would you stock that author again?
I rest my case. The jury finds that sell-through is the magic num-
ber of the moment.
VOODOO NUMBERS
Sell-through is by no means the only important number, though.
There are others, some of which are used roughly to forecast a
book's performance. These voodoo numbers, as I think of them,
crop up frequently in my conversations with editors.
Voodoo numbers are a bit like your daily horoscope: they do not
predict anything for sure, or necessarily anything at all, but just the
same you hanker to know what the voodoo numbers say.
Here are a few:
Ship-in. This is the raw number of copies ordered by bookstores
and wholesalers. It is an early number, and not particularly mean-
ingful, but it does say something about how the future might go. A
large ship-in bodes well—usually. It may mean that booksellers are
behind the book and anticipate good sell-through.
Then again, it may mean that the book was overordered and will
return in big numbers. At any rate, divide the ship-in figure by two
and you will have the sales total, if this is an average book. As I said,
a horoscope: it might be right, it might be wrong.
The "rate." This means the "reorder rate," the rate at which
accounts are asking for additional copies of the book. Reorders are
themselves a good sign, but it is the rate that is most telling. A good
rate means soon going back to press. A low rate means that when
the stock runs out the publisher will have to decide whether an
additional printing will be worthwhile.
In the paperback business, where the rate matters most, a rate of
three hundred to four hundred copies per month may be just
enough to keep a novel in print. A five hundred copy per month rate
is darn good. A rate of one thousand copies or more means it is
time to break out the champagne.
The "six-week." The period varies from house to house, but whatev-