Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
However, I don't understand how people do not acknowledge the cost of creating the book in the first place.
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The cost of creating the "book" is pretty low overall...about $2-3 per copy of a typical Big 5 published book goes to the author, pretty much regardless of the format...paper, audio, ebook, etc.
Everything else goes to some middleman. As you said, the convenience of download is worth something, so Amazon (or whoever actually transmits the book to you) should get their share. Other than that, though, the rest of the money goes to the publisher, and therein lies the problem.
When ebooks first came out, they were very close to the cost of hardbacks on release date, since the hardbacks were typically discounted and the ebooks were not. This has finally changed, not because ebook prices have dropped much (again, among the Big 5), but because hardback prices have jumped so much. But, that beginning was enough for people to ask the question of why something that cost almost zero per copy to produce and transmit was the same price as something that obviously cost a real amount to produce and ship. That showed us just how greedy publishers are, since the money saved in not physically printing the book was not passed on to the author...the publisher took it.
That attitude hasn't really changed, and the fact that publishers want to "license" ebooks instead of selling them bugs a lot of these older people who already have a "license" to the content sitting on a shelf. Amazon does give a healthy discount for some ebooks if you have purchased the physical book from them, but not for any books from the Big 5 publishers. This kind of double (or more) dipping was a big reason for a lot of movie and music piracy, but sadly publishers haven't learned from it. A "turn in your physical copy of a book at B&N and get a 75% discount on the ebook" promotion from a traditional publisher would have led to massive sales that were otherwise lost to illegal downloads.
But, publishers (like the movie and music industries) are so stupid that they think feel that if they can't get the full list price, it's better to get less than zero for a sale (zero for the illegal download, plus money spent trying to combat them) than to get some positive amount.