3 ms·

Your basic facts are wrong. The cost of author royalties is about 15% of the total retail price. Here's a good breakdown for you. http://journal.bookfinder.co

Your basic facts are wrong. The cost of author royalties is about 15% of the total retail price. Here's a good breakdown for you. http://journal.bookfinder.com/2009/03/breakdown-of-book-costs.html http://journal.bookfinder.com/2009/03/breakdown-of-book-cost... Based on a list price of $27.95: $3.55 - Pre-production $2.83 - Printing $2.00 - Marketing $2.80 - Wholesaler $4.19 - Author Royalties $12.58 - Profit Some costs other than printing also go away with ebooks. Pre-production becomes cheaper because the design and typography are typically discarded. Marketing gets cheaper when there are no books to mail or galleys to pre-produce for reviewers. Wholesale costs are gone, because distribution is streamlined to go directly from the publisher to Amazon, Apple, or whomever. An $28 hardcover, sold exclusively as an ebook, could quite comfortably be sold for $15-$20 and still cover all the author, production, and marketing costs without losing any profit for the publisher. When sold in conjunction with a hardback, as most ebooks are, the price can go even lower. Just as with paperbacks, the sunk costs are borne by the hardback. This is why a $28 hardcover becomes a $14 paperback - and why it could easily be a $10 ebook.

jrockway 16y ago
The "profit" section exists because there's a middleman, but let's forget about that for the sake of this argument. The cost of the stack of glued-together pages costs $3. Everything else pays for the production of the book in some way. Charging the same for the e-book, which needs marketing, copyediting, graphics design, etc., etc., just like the dead-tree book, means the author (or someone) gets $3 more. In this way, it doesn't seem particularly evil to not give the end-user that $3 discount. Just give the author $3 more. (As an author, the last thing I want is an App-Store-style race to the bottom. I want more than $0.30 per copy of book I sell, paper or otherwise.)
- jaysonelliot 16y ago
  Clearly, you didn't read what I wrote. If you're going to debate an issue, at least do the courtesy of considering the comment you're replying to.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    Clearly, you didn't read what I wrote. If you're going to reply "Clearly, you didn't read what I wrote," at least do the courtesy of considering the comment you're replying to.
    - jaysonelliot 16y ago
      After I broke down the costs very clearly, showing why there are more expenses than just the printing which are saved with ebooks - and the real-world issue of sunk costs which go into ebooks and paperbacks - you still insisted on claiming that the only savings would be the printing costs. The only thing you seem to have read was the numbers and the word profit. What, exactly, do you think you said that wasn't considered?
      - jrockway 16y ago
        What I mean to say: OK, thanks for the breakdown. But the breakdown of current costs don't necessarily mean they are going to stay that way forever. The one thing that's constant is that the author needs to be compensated for his work in creating the book. From there, he can just self-publish his word document or whatever. No marketing, no editors, no overhead. Now if you account for the cost of paper to print that book out, it ends up not being very much. Therefore, it's pointless to want an ebook for less than a printed book. You're paying for the author, not paying for the paper.

jrockway 16y ago

The "profit" section exists because there's a middleman, but let's forget about that for the sake of this argument. The cost of the stack of glued-together pages costs $3. Everything else pays for the production of the book in some way. Charging the same for the e-book, which needs marketing, copyediting, graphics design, etc., etc., just like the dead-tree book, means the author (or someone) gets $3 more. In this way, it doesn't seem particularly evil to not give the end-user that $3 discount. Just give the author $3 more. (As an author, the last thing I want is an App-Store-style race to the bottom. I want more than $0.30 per copy of book I sell, paper or otherwise.)

jaysonelliot 16y ago
Clearly, you didn't read what I wrote. If you're going to debate an issue, at least do the courtesy of considering the comment you're replying to.
- jrockway 16y ago
  Clearly, you didn't read what I wrote. If you're going to reply "Clearly, you didn't read what I wrote," at least do the courtesy of considering the comment you're replying to.
  - jaysonelliot 16y ago
    After I broke down the costs very clearly, showing why there are more expenses than just the printing which are saved with ebooks - and the real-world issue of sunk costs which go into ebooks and paperbacks - you still insisted on claiming that the only savings would be the printing costs. The only thing you seem to have read was the numbers and the word profit. What, exactly, do you think you said that wasn't considered?
    - jrockway 16y ago
      What I mean to say: OK, thanks for the breakdown. But the breakdown of current costs don't necessarily mean they are going to stay that way forever. The one thing that's constant is that the author needs to be compensated for his work in creating the book. From there, he can just self-publish his word document or whatever. No marketing, no editors, no overhead. Now if you account for the cost of paper to print that book out, it ends up not being very much. Therefore, it's pointless to want an ebook for less than a printed book. You're paying for the author, not paying for the paper.