Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: The "canon" Of Modern Fantasy Coming Back Into Print?
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 01:14:12 -0600

In a message to All <27 Aug 92 17:56> Chuq Von Rospach writes in and says:

 CVR> kksys.com!umn.edu!doug.cae.wisc.edu!uakari
 CVR> ksys.com!umn.edu!doug.cae.wisc.edu!uakari CVR>
ov!taligent!apple!mumbo.apple.com!gallant.apple.com!chuq
 CVR> Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
 CVR> <71662@apple.Apple.COM> <BtLLMv.HoJ@news.cso.uiuc.edu>

 CVR> ba@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (B.A. Davis-Howe) writes:
 >>chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:

 >>>tough in any event to keep it in print, thanks to Thor Power Tools vs. the
 >>>IRS.

 >>Can you explain this to poor ignorant little me?  What are you referring to?

 CVR> Oops. Sorry. ("warning! jargon alert! warning! jargon alert!")

 CVR> A number of years ago, there was a
 CVR> fight in Tax Court that the IRS won that
 CVR> ended up being known as the Thor Power Tools decision (named for the poor
 CVR> schmucks that lost). Basically, it used to be that stuff sitting in a
 CVR> warehouse didn't get taxed until it
 CVR> actually sold. The IRS decided it could
 CVR> get even more money by taxing companies
 CVR> on the value of the inventory, even
 CVR> though it was just sitting there collecting dust, since the inventory is
in
 CVR> effect an asset.

 CVR> That's a gross oversimplification, for which I apologize, but I don't
have
 CVR> the details handy. But the bottom line is that before Thor Power Tools,
 CVR> publishers could print 50,000 copies of a book, ship 20,000 to stores and
 CVR> the other 30,000 copies to a warehouse and only pay warehouse fees to
keep
 CVR> them around until needed.

 CVR> Now, they not only have to pay to warehouse them, but everything kept in
 CVR> inventory is also a potential tax liability -- even if the books are
NEVER
 CVR> sold, the publisher gets to pay taxes on
 CVR> them if they're in inventory on the
 CVR> tax date.

 CVR> The end result: smaller print runs, so there isn't as much stock in the
 CVR> warehouse to start. It's more expensive to warehouse stuff, so they're
 CVR> less likely to keep copies around. Fewer printings and reprints,
 CVR> because it's harder to justify the costs of printing/warehousing more
 CVR> copies. And books get sent out of print faster, because it's cheaper
 CVR> (in many cases) to pull the warehouse copies and destroy them than it
 CVR> is to pay the taxes on them.

 CVR> So your government's tax policy has had
 CVR> a significant effect on your ability
 CVR> to read the books you want to read. This
 CVR> is one of the major reasons why the
 CVR> backlists have dried up and the midlist is disappearing, because the tax
 CVR> implications have made it really tough to justify keeping books in print
 CVR> unless they're selling a reasonably large number of copies.

All true.  But, just to be contrary, and fair... 

All the Thor decision did was add impetus in a direction publishing was 
already moving, that of more short-term efficiency, more emphasis on what's 
moving now, less on building a backlist.  Even if it's not taxed, a book 
sitting in a warehouse still costs money to store... 

 * Origin: Timing is Everything (1:282/341.0)