Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
To that I would ask: how much is the average cost per sale for print and ebooks?
Follow up question: why should booksellers reap the benefits that you described, yet libraries be denied them?
|
I don't know personally the true cost per circulation of ebooks or paper books.
Table 2 of this report
http://www.haplr-index.com/SampleStandardReport.PDF
which seems to be compiled from statistics of 1672 libraries in 1999 gives the average cost per circulation as $1.90 -$3.77
It also states that the cost spent on materials, which I take to mean books is between 13% and 19%.
I assume that the rest of the cost per circulation, or more than 80% is made up of housing for the books, staffing, administration, etc.
As this report is from 1999 I would assume that ebooks were not a major contributing factor.
For ebooks I have seen reports, articles, and forum comments stating that some ebooks cost more than paper books by as much as 75% and that some ebooks are limited to 27 circulations before a new copy must purchased.
Assuming that this is true then worst case a $10 book would cost the library $40 material cost would be $1.48 per circulation. If half of library purchased ebooks do not have the circulation restriction or the higher price, then the cost could be much lower. I realize many books cost a lot more than $10 and the cost may be so prohibitive that a library cannot buy any ebooks.
I am sure that ebooks have some additional storage and administrative costs, but cannot think they are as high as paper books. Maybe I am wrong.
I do not think that libraries do pay more per use or circulation for ebooks than paper books, in fact it may be less. But this is not something I can say for sure. Perhaps a library administrator will chime in at some point
I don't actually think libraries should pay more if this is what you mean by benefits I described. But conversely booksellers cannot legally distribute the same book 27 or more times per copy purchased. I have read that even Amazon Prime pays for each ebook that they lend every time they lend it.
Which benefits did I describe and when did I say libraries should not have them BTW? I love libraries and have used them regularly for nearly 60 years. I just don't expect them to have the same availability of books as bookstores as I do not feel that I am paying the same amount for the books I get from the library even figuring in the property taxes I pay. Not saying it would not be nice, I just do not see it as practical or even possible. Maybe my expectations are too low. Maybe the $1500 I personally pay for property taxes pays for 100 or so books I borrow annually with money left over for roads and streetlights, police, social services etc. and that the library should have 500 copies of Dan Brown's latest.
Helen