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As long as people conflate the last step's marginal cost with the amortized cost of making a thing that ends up in your hands, we're gonna be stuck arguing abou
by 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
As long as people conflate the last step's marginal cost with the amortized cost of making a thing that ends up in your hands, we're gonna be stuck arguing about this.
- EvanAnderson 6y agoThere are certainly expenses incurred by the publisher that have nothing to do with the physical articles. It seems like the marginal cost of the "last step" cost is still a very significant component, though. High-touch sales channels, handling returns (consignment sales), and co-promotion expenses all seem tightly coupled to that "last step" and sales of physical articles.
- ghaff 6y agoIt's been a while since I've looked at it but, basically, the cost of the physical article is a smaller slice of the pie than many think. There was a lot of discussion about this when e-books first got big and weren't that much cheaper than mass market or trade paperbacks. As I recall, the number was around $2/copy.