[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Does that editor include returns in that cost? Those are, I suspect a major part of how the numbers seem skewed; claiming "print/distribution/etc costs are 10% of production"--and then trashing 1/3 of the production--is disingenuous. If there's a 33% return rate, then print etc. is 10% of 64% of the run, and 100% of 33% of the run, for a total of 42% of the production costs.

I know the 100% on those is skewed, because it includes editorial & author advance costs. But you get the idea... if 33% of a run isn't being sold for profit, the margins are drastically different.

Reserve against returns is a thorny issue. I don't know if he was including them or not.

But it doesn't directly affect my point about what costs are incurred before a book ever reaches the stage of being published in any format. Dropping reserve against returns and print/bind/warehouse/distribute costs still doesn't bring costs down enough to allow the sort of ebook pricing people are hoping for. (If a book is returned unsold, what have you lost? You're out the shipping needed to do the returns - negligible in a PB edition where they simply strip and return covers and trash the body - and the total unit cost of manufacture of the unsold books. Manufacturing costs are generally about 50 cents - $1.00 for PBs, and perhaps $2 for HCs.)

And unless the ebook edition is the only edition of the book, reserve against returns will be in the book budget and constitute a cost for the book.

Tens or thousands of readers might buy it if it cost what paperbacks cost. Especially if the competition is insisting on $14 for ebooks. If publishers are going to enter the direct marketplace, they'll need to realize that their competition is a lot more immediate than they've been dealing with.

Possibly. I tend to agree that pricing equivalent to MMPB prices is where things will settle out, though some publishers may be dragged kicking and screaming to that point.

But I also expect tiered pricing. The ebook will cost the same as the paperback, when the paperback is issued. If it's out at the same time as the hardcover, it will cost more.

Publishers who sell to distributors based on long-term contracts (who sell to stores, who sell to readers) are in a very different position from publishers who sell directly to readers with an intermediary who provides only the UI. They need to advertise to those individuals, not to other companies... and enticing individuals involves sorting out what each of them values.

The vast majority of publishers do very little direct sale to consumers, and tend to do it badly. They're still trying to figure out the end user. I had a chat with a Senior Editor at Tor the other night, and she mentioned her house and Baen Books as publishers attempting to understand their market. I agreed. Both are engaged in branding. Baen sells midlist action/adventure SF/fantasy, and understands their market. To a large extent, if you like one of Baen's titles. you are likely to like others. Tor is broader based in their offerings, but is in a similar position. With both houses, you might take a chance on a new book by an unfamiliar writer because they published it, and you trust their tastes.

Most houses don't seem to have a clue about branding, and most readers, if asked who published their favorite books would probably have to grab them off the shelf to look - they'll think in terms of authors and titles.

If ebooks had a used & giveaway market, I'd think this was true. With the current state of things and most publishers trying to push "one purchase = 1 reader," or at most "1 purchase = small handful of readers selected before purchasing, all of whom have access to all your reading material," I don't believe there's added value; it's a trade-off.

Value is what the buyer thinks it is. If a reader thinks that having a book in electronic form adds value and makes it worth more, I understand why and won't disagree. For them, it's a true statement.

Baen's ebooks are more valuable to me than paperbacks; Smashwords' aren't.

What makes them more valuable to you?
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Dennis