Nope, full article is still masked for me, but I do not like the phrasing of the preview portion:
Quote:
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As physical book sales fall, publishers' fixed costs are becoming more cumbersome. One area major publishers can cushion the blow is by keeping e-book prices higher.
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I believe the article writer means that the fixed costs (which are, tautologically,
fixed) are not rising (since they cannot), but rather becoming a larger percentage of the gross sales, thus lowering the net.
In other words, the author seems to be saying that lower prices mean that the publisher makes less money.
There is a problem here. Or, rather, two.
One is that I'm not sure I believe those fixed costs are fixed. Is there some kind of conglomeration that maintains that all covers cost X, all editing costs Y, and so forth? Are the prices of printing the paper runs contained in those "fixed costs"? Because if they are, it's my opinion that they shouldn't be.
The other problem is that this doesn't seem to be on an infinite time scale. It is possible that lower prices over a fixed time period will result in lower profits, but eBooks are (or should be) forever. Are lower prices on eBooks less profitable on an longer time chart? I wonder.
In other words, I doubt the accuracy of this article.