Quote:
Originally Posted by giedre
Does anyone know just how much money of an average paperback book, let's say eight dollars, actually goes to pay for the paper and ink in making that book? I guess the reason I ask is because I too feel that ebooks are still too expensive. Perhaps we are underestimating the amount of money due an ebook??
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The 'shelf' price is usually twice the price to the bookstore - so a mass-market paperback 'priced' at $6.99 'costs' the bookstore $3.50. Of that $3.50, a percentage - not more than 55% and often less, goes to the fulfillment and distribution company. That brings the amount to the publisher to $1.75 - at BEST! Out of that $1.75 comes the printing costs, the author's advance and royalty money, promotional expenses and the publisher's labor and fixed costs. The rest goes to the publisher as profit.
If you go to BooksJustBooks.com, they'll run the numbers for a typical MMPB (mass market paperback) that you want published. And for a print run of 5,000 or more copies, the per-copy price (and this includes their profits) drops to less than a buck.
The big costs per book are always the distributor and the retailer. None of that money, unless the publisher is also the distributor, goes back to the publisher. Nor does the author get any of that, except in the cases where the author is self-publishing and self-retailing.
But when you consider that the SAME breakdown occurs with hardcover books, then paying MMPB prices for an ebook isn't all that much of a burden. Paying HC prices *IS*!
Derek