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.
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Only if it's a new release. A backlist ebook doesn't have the editing, marketing, and other overhead costs--that was all done the first time. The backlist paperback has production costs that can't drop below a certain level, and if the print run is smaller, those go up.
An ebook has no specific individual production costs, and should be priced as low as possible to maximize profits. Sellers should be studying the markets to find where the "sweet spot" is, rather than assuming they'll sell X books and therefore need to price them at $Y to make the same profit they would off the same number of paperback sales.
As far as I can sort out, the mainstream publishers are under the impression that a book's sales run is done after 6 months (or 6 months after each paper release), so they need the higher prices in order to make more profit during that stretch. There's absolutely no comprehension that the book-buying public is oblivious to their schedules, and wants a copy of a book when they hear about it--which could mean two weeks after it's released, or twelve years later.