Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
You (and other ebookers) keep making pronouncements like this regarding pricing and profitability in the publishing industry. I'm wondering -- aside from your opinion on the matter -- what factual bases you have to support these statements that are given as if they are fact. How do you know, for example, (a) what it really costs to produce an ebook and (b) that publishers want ebooks prices high enough to "maintain the paper book market"?
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An eBook and a pBook cost exactly the same up to the point of layout/creation after the book is done being edited/written. They have to make the eBook in two to four formats (ePub, PDF, Mobipocket, KF8 (might be a direct conversion from the ePub and not really an issue)). After that, it's a completely different deal for the eBook vs the pBook. The pBook needs to be printed, shipped, stored, shipped again, stored again and once it goes from hardcover to paperback, it gets remaindered or returned (more shipping) and more layout, printing, shipping, storing, etc. Once the eBook is made, that's it, it's made. The server costs are getting cheaper as you divide the cost among all the eBooks stored there. Sure there are backup costs. But overall, the eBooks have a lower cost. And when you factor in the cheap crappy covers that most eBooks use, you don't pay the creator of the proper cover.
So there is no reason for an eBook to cost the same or so close to a hardcover.