Quote:
Originally Posted by MrPLD
This thread is starting to make my head hurt a bit.
For our production, it worked out about $35,000 for author wages, $10,000 for editing, proof, artwork, website, media and typesetting; then we were ready for letting the world get at it. Using a POD service we make about $5/book, and the ebook is also $5 (well, 4.99). Of course, these are very cheap figures because it's a two-person team and we just sub-contracted out various jobs.
I must say, the big upside of eBooks is that you can send them off at whim to reviewers and it has no real cost, unlike a printed book which incurs freight above and beyond the printing cost.
Paul.
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Paul,
Those numbers sound reasonable, and about what I'd expect for a typical book. Maybe going to $20K. For most books, I don't think you'd count author's wages as cost, simply because they get paid a slice off each sale and that cost is incurred after the book sold.
I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the marketing costs. It seems to me that an awful lot of marketing happens in the store, although I do see books advertised in the "Books" section of the weekend paper and I rarely see book adverts on TV (and if I do, they are for big name authors who sell millions of copies). So my guess is that the marketing really does scale to the print run size.
That being said, there really isn't too much chance to spend a lot on marketing in the store when you're talking about an eBook. Presumably, you can pay to get the book "featured" on the website or in an email to regular customers.
In any event, I'm not seeing the 80% cost arising out of this.