publishing 101 : "Sell-through"

There is a thing in publishing called sell through. Quite possibly one of the most important terms a publisher can know, actually. It refers to the amount of magazines you really sell, versus the amount you send to the distributor. Distributors dont return magazines nobody bought, they toss them, and your sell through number decides whether or not they keep distributing your magazine (to Barnes&Noble, etc.) and how big your check is. So, for example, if we send 1,000 copies of the magazine to the distributor, and they sell 500 copies (and toss 500) our sell through is 50%. Industry standard for magazines is a 40% sell through. 

Ahem (*anticipatory throat clearing*), I am pleased to announce that our sell through on issue 6 of Overspray, the California issue, was a whopping 83% (EIGHTY THREE PERCENT)!! That, in case you huffed glue through elemtary school, is just over double industry standard. Here's where I'd like to congratulate everyone who worked on the issue, and everyone in it, on being such desirable bastards. ;)

Keep your peepers peeled for Overspray08-the Materials issue, in the next few weeks. 

Here's to a killer way to start the new one. 

peace la

iO