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haggardpete · 07-11-2009, 04:33 AM

Its about control. Publishers control the publishing of books and want to keep it that way. Earnings wise if you are a well known author you may end up with 10% of a paper books retail price per sale.

eBooks however can be published by anyone, for next to nothing and distributed for cents. They could be sold for half the price of a paper book, but the author could get four times the royalty and there would still be profit margin left for the retailer. And that explains why ebooks sold by the traditional book distribution businesses are so pricy. Amazon forced the game with the Kindle and now book sellers are involved – but because they have to be not because they want to be. If you owned Waterstones would you want push a format which could spell the end for your business?

Until authors start breaking away from the traditional publishers eBooks will be artificially expensive and restricted. All readers can do to help change things is to support the few authors who choose to publish eBooks independently.

07-11-2009, 04:33 AM	#5
haggardpete Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2009 Device: Sony 505	Control... Its about control. Publishers control the publishing of books and want to keep it that way. Earnings wise if you are a well known author you may end up with 10% of a paper books retail price per sale. eBooks however can be published by anyone, for next to nothing and distributed for cents. They could be sold for half the price of a paper book, but the author could get four times the royalty and there would still be profit margin left for the retailer. And that explains why ebooks sold by the traditional book distribution businesses are so pricy. Amazon forced the game with the Kindle and now book sellers are involved – but because they have to be not because they want to be. If you owned Waterstones would you want push a format which could spell the end for your business? Until authors start breaking away from the traditional publishers eBooks will be artificially expensive and restricted. All readers can do to help change things is to support the few authors who choose to publish eBooks independently.