[QUOTE=EowynCarter;1087835]
Quote:
Originally Posted by CyGuy
Adapting books to format, that's an editor's job, not a programer's.
There is a few things you forgetting -> server maintenance, requires people, buying new stuff. The website to seel the e-books, someone needs to be paid to do it (and again, both software / hardware maintenance).
And then taxes, building to house all that, people for support, and so on. Putting e-books on a server, in itself, don't cost much. It's everything that goes around.
I quite agree about the anti piracy software 
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" and programmers to adapt each title for Android, iPhone, Kindle, and all the other formats." - Maja Thomas, senior vice president of the Hachette Book Group’s digital division.
That's a quote from the story. Not me.
As for the rest of the stuff, That is effectively irrelevant.
Much of what you say that the publisher needs, they already have.
Random House f
or instance, Employees 5,432 (as of December 31, 2009).
If the costs were so high you wouldn't have companies like Smashwords and many other independent companies staying in business.
I take some of that back. I'm pretty sure that the top people in Smashwords and Baen aren’t making as much as the top people at Random House. NOW there is an expense.