Quote:
Originally Posted by elcreative
Myth time again... one book generated hence no further costs  So where do we get this book from? How about costs of servers (even if leased, it costs), staff to maintain (don't tell me you don't scream if the site you want is down), electricity, costs of doing business (paying card companies who want their cut, proper distribution of royalties, artwork for covers) etc... funnily enough these costs differ very little for paper or ebook AND make up a much larger proportion of the book cost than the no longer needed paper, printing and distribution ever did... Not saying it isn't cheaper but there are plenty of additional costs still included... 
Damn, really must finish reading thread before replying... no matter how irritated... |
Servers = Fixed Cost (compared to sales), and payed for by the retailer
Staff = Fixed Cost
Electricity = See Servers
CC Fees = Variable Cost, but payed for by retailer
Royalties distribution = See Staff
Artwork = Fixed Cost
So, lets take a look at what the list really looks like:
Ebook Variable Costs:
DRM (%) (Not applicable if selling through Amazon)
Royalties (%)
Paper Variable Costs:
Royalties (%)
Materials ($)
Printing Labor ($)
Storage ($)
Shipping ($)
What you can see from the two lists is that ebook variable costs are a percentage of the price you sell an ebook for. Therefore, you will always make a unit profit on an ebook sale. So the goal is to maximize the overall profit from those sales to cover the fixed costs that are mostly shared between paper and ebook.