Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
This is nonsense. Virtually all the work that's involved in the production of a book (editing, layout, advertising, etc) is also there for an eBook. The only thing you don't have are the printing costs, which typically account for around 10-20% of total costs. An eBook that is priced 20% lower than the corresponding paperback is, therefore, reasonably priced.
This is complicated by the fact that, in many countries, paper books attract a lower rate of taxation than eBooks. In the UK, for example, paperbooks are "zero rated" for VAT, whereas eBooks attract the standard 20% VAT rate. The VAT therefore puts back the 20% that you might have saved in the production cost of the eBook.
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I know about logistics! You have totally left out the cost of transportation, product handling, and pre-shipment storage of non-digital editions. The price of labour to move product, the huge facilities and real-estate costs associated to warehouse the product (pBook, etc) , ever increasing fuel costs, delivery time frames...is very much a large 'lump' of bringing a book to market; actually....to bringing any form of commerce to market. This can be (with all in), near 30 percent of the product's wholesale cost. So...by your estimations, I estimate that the profit margin can remain to the publisher with an eBook over pBook discounting at the register of 50 percent wholesale price, by downloading that eBook to your reader, rather than shipping from their loading dock, fanning out across the continent, and being received by the book store receiver. MASSIVE money is being saved by migrating to the eBook format for the publishers. They should share 'the wealth' with their customers....in at least 30-45 percent less cost to read, over a pBook. This, in my personal opinion, should be an asking price eBook discount 'standard' across the industry. It should always be ajusted as to the asking price for the same pBook, year-over-year.
Keep eBook adopters happy, keep them congratulating themselves that they were so astute to having picked up an eReader in the first place...and sell 30,000 more copies at 30-45 percent less asking price over pBooks than would had you, at the near asking price of a pBook,...... as I see it clearly headed for this year.