Quote:
Originally Posted by GA Russell
The price increases were huge. The publishers said that their paper costs were a large part of their costs. Were the publishers lying then, or are they lying now?
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And that was what, 30-40 years ago? Has it occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, the cost structures have changed since then?
Digital typesetting, huge leaps in productivity, printing in China, changes in raw material costs, economies of scale, POD for smaller print runs, better data analysis and dramatically increased efficiencies on the back end all drive down the costs of the paper part of the book biz. This results in paper costs occupying an increasingly smaller part of the total costs.
Any business engages in a certain amount of "exaggeration." So do you, and I, and every other human capable of communicating.
That said, it does not seem unreasonable at all that the composition of a book's costs have dramatically changed in the past 35+ years.