Thanks for the link Kaikara. Indeed an interesting article. Though it's over two years old and I have no idea where or how they got their numbers... To give them the benefit of the doubt:
Okay, slightly more money goes into making eBooks than I realised, but it still sort of confirms what I said. Forgetting the cover design, typesetting, copy-editing, author royalties and marketing for a second (which all apply to both print and eBook), $13 goes to the publisher for a hardcover book of $26. To me, that means eBooks can be at least $13 cheaper than hardcovers when they first come out. I don't really understand all the figures they throw around for the eBooks, that's just a bunch of agreements and nonsense to me. And then they say this:
Quote:
Another reason publishers want to avoid lower e-book prices is that print booksellers like Barnes & Noble, Borders and independents across the country would be unable to compete. As more consumers buy electronic readers and become comfortable with reading digitally, if the e-books are priced much lower than the print editions, no one but the aficionados and collectors will want to buy paper books.
“If you want bookstores to stay alive, then you want to slow down this movement to e-books,” said Mike Shatzkin, chief executive of the Idea Logical Company, a consultant to publishers. “The simplest way to slow down e-books is not to make them too cheap.”
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Ppffft. So yep, they like to keep eBooks expensive so we'll keep buying paper books. Sigh.