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Originally Posted by rlauzon
Huh?
That's not what the people in the publishing industry are telling us.
They are saying that of that $7.95 paperback, the author gets about $0.70.
So, if it only costs $1 to print a paperback, costs for the publishers are up to $1.70. That means that the retailer and the publisher are splitting $6.25 per book.
That doesn't seem correct.
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Ok, here's how it generally breaks down:
A $7.95 paperback wholesales to the retailer for $3.50 - $4.00, and may even have been supplied to a distributor first for $2.80 - 3.40.
Of that, say $3.50, the publisher pays $1 for printing and shipping, $0.75 for royalties, leaving a marginal gross profit of $1.75 per titles. Out of that needs to come the costs for development, formatting, publicity, administration, an allowance for returns and remainders, and profit.
Now, an ebook publisher, producing only ebook titles, can save on the printing and shipping. Unfortunately you cannot eliminate the retail channel, since most readers want a selection of books from multiple publishers, and won't be interested in visiting each publishers' website to find their titles. And, if you are using ANY retail channel, then as a publisher you cannot undercut your retailers and sell for less on your website, not unless you want to alienate your dealers.
The amortized costs for publicity, development, editing, formatting and administration have to be spread across the entire "print" run - and at the moment, ebooks are a niche market and as such have fairly high shared costs compared to print books because there are fewer electronic copies being sold.
But, don't take my word for it - start up your own publishing company and give it a try.
