Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman
Actually Elfwreck, I got the info about the cost of producing a hardback as opposed to a soft back from the the vice president of a one of the biggest publishing companies in the country. I thought it seemed like a bit of an exaggerations as well, but I don't think he would have said it if it weren't true--I mean, it's not exactly great PR for them  |
I suspect that either his numbers were outdated, or he had misunderstood some part of the process. (Perhaps printing the main-center-paper part is only a quarter more for hardcovers.)
Color jackets for hardcovers are not likely to be cheaper than $.50 each (if printed in the US), even in bulk. And even as cheap as they can get for overseas production, they'd have to be printed in one place, and assembled on the books in another--that's another production cost.
Maybe he meant the raw materials only cost $.25 more for hardcovers. Or that their "production" costs, after playing with the expenses and tax numbers, are only $.25 more.
That kind of potential confusion is why I don't trust statements from the publishing industry; they will make claims about costs or expenses, but not clarify what's included. I don't mean in this particular case; I don't expect people to use exact terms in a casual conversation, if that's what this was. But for press releases--numbers for "cost of production" are irrelevant if they won't tell us what's included in those costs.