Most books are loss leaders for publishing houses very few are profitable and even fewer are massively profitable. They keep publishing books that barely anybody reads because they have to have a diverse catalog.
It mirrors the venture capital business. Invest in 100 projects. Know that 90 of them will likely fail, 7 or 8 will break even, and just 2 or 3 will succeed. Hope that the successful ones are big enough to cover all the losses of the others plus some.
It's the shotgun approach. Lots and lots of attempts and ride the successes as far as they can.
>because they have to have a diverse catalog.
Why must they have a diverse catalog?
> they have to have a diverse catalog.
They have to have a diverse catalog because they don't know in advance which books will be the big sellers.