Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
How hard is it to understand that discounted paper books are NOT discounted by the publisher, but the retailer? Paper book has a 50% profit margin for the retailer at list price. Ebook has a 30% profit margin regardless of price that the publisher sets. Naturally it is much easier to discount the paper books way below list price than it would be for ebooks which the retailer is not even allowed to discount. On top of that the ebook that is discounted cuts into the share that the publisher gets. Discounted ebook equals lower royalties for the author, while discounted paper book is the same.
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Last author I talked to, her contract with the publisher did not have royalties based on the retail price of the book in any form. The royalties for ebook, paperback, tradepaper back and hardcover editions were defined in the contract. Any discounts between the publisher and retailer never mind the retailer and customer did not affect those numbers.
And again, since while many of the fixed costs are the same for an ebook or a deadtree book and there are other costs that only apply to deadtree books while the other costs for a ebook are pretty minimal, it is hard (IMNSHO) to justify pricing ebooks at the same price as paperbacks.