Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonist
Now, with ebooks, a publisher would realize very significant savings, not only on printing, storage and distribution, but also on returns.
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Again, while that $14 worth of overhead may seem impressive for a $50 hardback, when you're talking paperbacks (which is what people compare ebook prices to) it's a lot less impressive. That's $2.24 on an $8 paperback. And the costs do not necessarily scale linearly; if I sell half my paperbacks as ebooks, my overhead costs on those paperbacks do not necessarily decrease by 50%. So you're still talking about ebooks that are, at best, $2 cheaper than paperbacks in order for the publisher to maintain profits. And since ebooks will probably hurt hardback sales the most (it's the biggest price differential, plus ebooks will have to be available once the hardback comes out -- so no longer do people have to pay higher prices so they can get the book right away), that will hurt publisher margins the most, just as if people bought paperbacks instead of hardbacks.
So like I said before, the original story was wrong to try to compare ebooks to hardbacks rather than paperbacks, but nevertheless it is a problem for publishers if people expect to buy ebooks at much less than paperback prices. It's something they can adjust to somewhat, but retailers are going to have to give up some of their margins as well, or publishers will just stick with Amazon and/or their own online direct distribution.