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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
But I encounter enough resistance to posts like this on MR that I'm forced to conclude a lot of folks simply don't want to hear anything that disagrees with their notion of how little an ebook ought to cost.
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Mine too. I just happen to think mine is an informed guess.
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It looks the same from the other perspective. Here you are saying that you know more about publishing than the rest of us because you talk to publishers. And we are supposed to believe that their perspective isn't biased?
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
You think the author places no value on her time?
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Not *no value* but *no cost*.
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
I don't think you are right.
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I'm shocked!
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
To begin with, not all books get a hardcover edition. Most start life as mass market paperbacks.
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But we were talking about the division of costs between the different formats. That implies that there are other formats beside MMPB.
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Baen discovered that their audience would buy hardcovers of books by authors they liked that they discovered though the Free Library, so more Baen Books get hardcover publication.
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That would be marketing. The free books go into marketing costs.
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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
What happens to your assumptions when there isn't a hardcover to hang costs on?
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The costs get cut. Smaller advance, less people working on copyediting, less time spent on the cover, little if any marketing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
What happens in the case where there is no print edition to theoretically soak up various costs?
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There are also no print related costs. And I'm not talking just about manufacturing. Marketing is easier, accounting is easier, and this translates to less costs.
But there is a solution to the current problem: ads. Have the initial sale of the ebook be a "HC" version when it comes to price, but release a different version of the book when the PB comes out that would show on the header of every page something along the lines of "this cheap version was brought to you by...". You know, something that is easy to do, and everyone can be happy. And of course, for those that want a clean copy, they can pay the full price.