For those interested in the subject, this page has an interesting discussion. The whole scene has changed a lot in the 25 years since we've been involved in it: the two main trends have been ever shrinking print runs because of the declining amount of retail shelf space allocated to books and the increased competition for it, offset to a large extent, but not entirely, by improved technology making smaller runs less expensive.
Nowadays it is very hard to sell backlist to shops, whereas once it was a staple for them.
If they are going to stay in business, publishers need to make money out of most of what they publish, although some books are produced in the knowledge that at best they will only cover costs, as a public service.
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