Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
However, what people constantly fail to realize is that the paper part of books -- including the costs of returns -- are a very small slice of a book's costs. Advances, royalties, marketing, editing and accounting make up the bulk of a book's costs.
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I think the official publisher line is that printing, warehousing and returns amounts to about 10% of cover price. Another major cost is distributor's discount, which is 50% of the cover price. Amazon's cut of an ebook's cover price is 30%, I would guess that other ebook distributors take about the same.
And with print books, of course, there is the cost of shoplifting and people who buy them second hand to take into consideration. Say 5% for shoplifting, 20% for second hand sales (the second hand market is actually a lot larger than 20%, but not everyone will resell them).
So with ebooks they get a 10% saving on not having to print it, plus 20% saving in lower distributor cut, plus 5% because there are no shoplifters, plus 20% because there is no second hand market.
I'm sure all those savings would equal ebook prices that everyone would be happy with.