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Originally Posted by Sil_liS
So let me get this straight: when you said "if you spend $10k on the conversion" you meant money spent on everything but the actual conversion.
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No, dude. Just, no.
My point is that you have to pay people to do this kind of work, and there are all sorts of costs that people don't even think about.
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Originally Posted by Sil_liS
I don't remember anyone putting in the cost of the legal department in the cost of books, so it can't be significant.
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That's your argument? Seriously? No one on the web has mentioned it, therefore those costs don't exist?
You're going to need lawyers to revise the highly individualized contracts and to help in the negotiations. And no, lawyers are not cheap, even when they're on staff.
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Originally Posted by Sil_liS
Converting a pbook to ebook takes one person with a computer. Publishers have interns, right? That would take care of paying the emploies, healthcare and 401k.
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Uh, no.
Enslaving interns is not a viable business model. You either need to hire people or contract it out. Publishing is a for-profit enterprise, and people do not line up outside the door to offer to do grunt work for free.
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Originally Posted by Sil_liS
The beauty of ebooks is that they dont have to keep track of sales figures or royalties. There would be a computer program to do that automaticaly.
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Uh, no.
There is no "automatic" here. You need servers, database software, DB admins, programmers and backups. You need to integrate the sales data from numerous retailers. You have to train people how to use it -- including your accountants, upper management, marketing and pretty much everyone in the company who needs to see sales data.
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Originally Posted by Sil_liS
if they would stop overcharging, the taxes would be lower.
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Originally Posted by Sil_liS
Oh, and the part about doing this for a large number of books, it lowers the costs, it doesn't increase them.
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Not really. This is not a manufacturing process where you can leverage economies of scale. This is all human labor, and it isn't cheaper to hire 2 people than it is to hire 1.
And to be clear, I'm not saying that the costs are so insufferably great and offer an insurmountable obstacle. I'm simply pointing out that it is
not free, that the costs are higher than the average person presumes, and that converting a backlist title into an ebook incurs costs that need to be earned back.