Quote:
Originally Posted by mldavis2
Let's not overlook the amortization of advertising that must be overcome with new releases - something older books have already done, hopefully. At any rate, older books are seldom advertised after initial release unless noted on the cover of a newer release as an author's previous successful work to entice buyers to pick a copy of the latest and greatest.
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It isn't just advertising that has to be amortized. Editing, proofreading, etc. Older books should have had their expenses covered long ago, thus allowing for more wiggle room in the price. Also, as books age, their sales start to slump since most of the potential market has already got it and moved on, so it is common to use that new found wiggle room to lower the price to attract missed buyers.
On the older books, if you've already covered the proofing, editing, etc, that leaves the per unit production costs, which is where things start really changing between ebook and printed. eBooks, generally the only per unit cost is the DRM fees, where as on a printed book you have printing, binding, packing, shipping, storage, etc to contend with. These costs, on for both print and electronic are peanuts compared to the amortized expenses (with some estimates are that on average the production cost of a hard cover, before shipping and storage, is 70 cents). Say if the entire cost to the publisher is a buck on a book, on the comparative scale that's still substantially more than the ebook cost. I'm trying to find out how much the DRM per unit cost is exactly, but not had much luck so far.