Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Let's do some "finger in the air" calculations, and guesstimate that it might take 30h work to create and proof-read (that's the time-consuming part) a typical work of fiction (that estimate is on the low end, based on my own experience of creating ebooks).
Let's guess that our book creator gets paid $30/hour (a fairly modest salary), and that the total cost to the company of employing that person is 3x their salary (that would be fairly typical). So, the cost to the publisher of producing the ebook would be 30 x 30 x 3, or $2700.
Now, let's guess that the publisher makes $2 profit for every copy of the book sold. That means that, before they'll break even, they need to sell 2700 / 2, or 1350 copies of the book.
Those are actually fairly steep sales figures for a back-catalogue book. Unless it's quite a popular book, it could take several years to sell that many copies. And until they're sold, the publisher's making a loss.
It's understandable why publishers do take the task of releasing their back catalogue as ebooks at a relatively slow pace.
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I get what you're saying, but the numbers are pulled out of thin air.
I guess I should ask my friend again what his estimate is for the amount of time he takes to put a book together. I can't remember now, but I don't believe it was thirty hours per book. And the books he puts out are of higher quality than many small press books I've purchased (though those have gotten better).
Also, there's a publisher I like, Piccadilly Publishing. They specialized (at least initially) in releasing westerns by the UK authors known as the Piccadilly Cowboys. These were books written '70's and '80's and you can be fairly sure that there weren't digital copies readily available. They sell their books for $1.99. I'm sure nobody is getting rich off the venture. But they've at least make enough to stay afloat for five years. And they wouldn't be able to do it if the costs you are quoting are accurate.