"For every 100 books we sell in physical, we sell 48 Kindle books"

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Well, kitty, that's why we're here!.

ahhh! *purr* thanks!

[Andanzas]

I bet they are counting the free downloads as a sale.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

I bet they are counting the free downloads as a sale.

Do you mean Samples as well?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I just simply don't believe it. The printing, warehousing, shipping, and RETURNS!

Print-On-Demand publishing is being used more and more and is reducing costs of warehousing, shipping, returns. There are printing systems coming out that are about the size of a refrigerator that can print, bind and trim a book in a few minutes, and would be suitable at least for any material that works well as an eBook, and will probably be found in your local Walmart (or independent bookstore) soon. One can imagine that could include customizations such as paper type, large type, etc. At that point, the publisher's cost to produce is basically equivalent for ebook and printed book.

[Andanzas]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Do you mean Samples as well?

No, I mean whole books. I don't own a Kindle and I don't know how it is, but when I download a free MP3 sampler I always reveive an email saying "Thank you for your purchase." And in the Kindle bestseller list there are always several titles that are free. I might be totally wrong, of course.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

No, I mean whole books. I don't own a Kindle and I don't know how it is, but when I download a free MP3 sampler I always reveive an email saying "Thank you for your purchase." And in the Kindle bestseller list there are always several titles that are free. I might be totally wrong, of course.

You're probably right. But again without full disclosure of sales data we really have no idea.

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

IMHO prices should be lower on ebooks because there's so much less work involved on the publisher's end. But the authors should receive a substantially higher percentage of each sale -- high enough to match what they would earn off of paper sales. After all, their work has not diminished. Fair is fair.

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I'm in complete agreement. I've seen a couple of conversations regarding publishing prices with arguments that it is not that much cheaper to publish an ebook.... I don't get it! I am publishing industry impaired about this topic

Originally Posted by kennyc

I just simply don't believe it. The printing, warehousing, shipping, and RETURNS!

The costs involved are different because the book must be distributed, tracked and stored on/by computer. I'm sure the are already tracking their physical product by computer do that is no different. The above are the only cost differentials I see and I can't believe those are insignificant.

I think it is much more to do with FUD than anything so they(the publishers) refuse to change.

Yeah, I don't believe it either.

Like Daffy, I also missed this "48 ebooks for 100 pbooks" figure. That is way more than I would have imagined. Basically one out of every three books sold is an ebook? That's staggering if true.

Plus, if I were an author, I'd try and retain the rights to my ebook sales. Then I'd submit the book to Amazon myself and keep 35%+ of the sales, or I could go through Smashwords and keep nearly 50%. [Edit: I'd submit the ebook to other ebook outlets as well.]

[whitearrow]

But according to the quoted author the *percentage* is the same -- $1 of a $10 ebook sale is the same percent as $2.50 of a $25 hardback. Both are 10 percent. (Though, geez, what idiots pay full retail price for a hardcover unless you're trapped in an airport for 12 hours? That $25 hardback is usually available at Costco for $14.84.)

The question, I guess, is whether enough ebooks at $10 can be sold to make up for the reduction in hardback sales.

@Daithi, authors can't retain ebook rights if they are with a major publishing house, unless they are a really huge name with a lot of clout. The major publishers all require ebook rights.

[daffy4u]

Refining the 100:48 state per Jeff Bezos:

Of all the books that Amazon sells, what percentage are digital books?
For every 100 copies of a physical book we sell, where we have the Kindle edition, we will sell 48 copies of the Kindle edition. It won’t be too long before we’re selling more electronic books than we are physical books. It’s astonishing.

So the stat is per book title where pbook and Kindle book exist.

Edit: More.

Is it true that you add digital books to your holdings on the basis of their popularity and their sales rank in paper form?
Yes, that’s basically true. We also have a self-service platform where small publishers or even self-published authors can put their books on themselves.

How does that work?
Basically you submit the book, you set the price for it, we charge the customer and then we give you 35 percent of the revenue.

And Amazon keeps 65 percent? That sounds like a lot.
Does it? You’re an author, what does your royalty check look like? Are your royalties 35 percent?

No. Let’s not have that conversation.
O.K., I think we’re done.

[markbot]

I can only think that he gets paid on a percentage of gross revenue basis. I can think of reasons why that makes sense....such as shifting the cost of the book from fixed to variable for the book seller.

The author should consider that the secondary market for ebooks is zero right now.....so in the long run, he might still generate more revenue on ebooks.