Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
Besides, isn't this all irrelevant?
Under Agency, it doesn't matter to the publishers what the costs of supplying eBooks, because that comes out of the retailer's 30%. The publishers get 70% of cover regardless.
How does that compare to what they get from a pBook after the retailer's cut and the cost of printing and distribution?
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They get 75% of the 70% or 52.5% of retail. On a $13 ebook that is $6.85.
The author gets 25% or $2.91.
On print they get 35-45% of list (authors get from 8-15%) which is typically around double the ebook retail.
So on a $24 pbook they get about $9 gross, the author gets $3, and the rest is split between the distributor (Ingram only, since B&T quit) and the retailer. Amazon rarely uses Ingram as a distributor and picks up the books at the publisher warehouse so they eat the shipping but get the max 45% discount.
Of their gross, publishers have to pay printing, shipping to their warehouses, warehousing, shipping on returns, and pulping costs. Plus overhead, but that applies to ebooks, too.
Before Agency, ebooks sold at the same price as print so publishers got $9 instead of $6.84 and authors got $3 instead instead of $2.90.
Of course, some pbooks have higher lists and others lower. But the ratios are mostly contant.
With one exception: deep discount deals, like Costco gets.
On those, they get 50% but instead of paying the author 15% of list, they pay out around 5% of the 50%. So on a $24 book selling for $15 at Costco, Costco makes $3, the publisher $11.40 and the $0.60%.
It's a weird business.