Quote:
Originally Posted by delphidb96
And yet Baen Books has managed to price between $5-$6 for YEARS! And let us not forget all those delicious Fictionwise titles running between $5.99-$7.99. One must presume that Fictionwise is in it for a profit, yes?
I grant that a publisher will find their share of ebook cover prices smaller than what they get from a decent hardcover - but given the costs involved in producing mass-market paperbacks (Remember, the bookstores want between 50%-55% of the cover price.), I can't help but believe the publishers are distorting the facts - just a trifle.
Derek
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I think the publishers are full of it as well. I've looked at what figures are available and came to the conclusion that the publishers are nuts. The margin on an ebook is higher than the margin on a hardback (right now it is significantly higher because Amazon is paying them the same for both). About half the cost of producing an pbook are not incurred when producing an ebook. PPB (paper, printing, and binding) is typically 20% of the cost of a book, distribution is around 10%, and returns & warehousing can make up another 20%. (Note: returns are not customer returns, but bookstore returns of unsold books.)
Baen Books seems to be the only publisher that has figured this out, and they have adjusted their business model appropriately. For example, they release their ebooks
before they sell pbooks, bundle books together, and do a whole host of things designed to promote ebooks.