Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
When we are talking about the cost of converting a book for a publisher we do not have to consider scanning. They have an electronic version anyway, before printing. I think it is purely a marketing decision. They don't want to relinquish so much power to Amazon and others, and some may just not believe that their target readers would actually prefer e-books (for small, specialty publishers). And some will be worried about unauthorized copying.
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You would think they would have such a thing but apparently they often don't with back catalog stuff. I assumed that, too, when I first got into ebooks but apparently many publishers don't have good version control or a system of electronic archiving. They're doing that now but from what I've heard from publishing folks here, even a few years back that wasn't terribly common. Shocking, isn't it?
I think the biggest thing they worry about is their margin. Printing and distributing is expensive and there are certain fixed costs associated with it that will be higher per-copy as more digital works and fewer print works are sold. If they could abandon print, that wouldn't be an issue but it will be awhile before that happens. There's a lot of pressure to lower the digital price, too, since consumers don't feel it's fair to stick them for print costs. The publisher needs to make their product (the title) profitable across the combination of all formats. If its highest margin sales, the hardbacks, are cannibalized by ebook sales, they have to really restructure how they do business. Personally I think we'll end up with a combination of ebooks and POD but it's going to be a painful transition.
I'm sure they are also quite worried about unauthorized copying but what many fail to realize is that just because they don't release an ebook, that doesn't mean they aren't out there. It just takes one person digitizing a copy and there you go. The unauthorized copy gets them
no money in addition to taking away from print sales. An authorized copy gets them
some money. Last I checked, some was better than none. So they can resist ebooks all they want but it won't get them anywhere. The more people get used to reading on a device, the less they will tolerate having to go out and buy a paper book. If publishers don't make it easy for customers, they'll get it off the net for free. If they charge an unreasonable price, same thing. Most folks have a threshold where they will justify it. Sure, some will always get the pirate copy. Worrying too much about that can make them miss the big picture. I think most will buy if it's reasonable and simple.