MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - How much cost difference is there really?

emellaich · 09-25-2009, 02:23 PM

Finally, there is the increased flexibility of ebooks.

That $1 per book figure assumes that we print exactly the correct amount of books. If we print twice as many books as we sell, the actual printing cost is $2 per book sold. I would assume that in most cases you have some amount of books left over, so the actual printing cost per book sold will be above $1.

Even if you sell out there is an issue. Let's assume that you never print in quantities lower than 5,000 for economic batch reasons. You print a run of 5,000 and you sell out. You could have actually sold 6,000, but since you didn't print that many initially, its too expensive to go back for an over-run of 1,000. As a result you lost 1,000 in sales. If this had been an ebook, you would have captured all of those lost sales since you wouldn't really run out. Therefore, you could have either made more profit, or you could have charged less per book and still hit your profit target. Of course the lower charge per book would increase the sales further and have increased your profit likewise.

The fact that you don't have to pre-determine the sales amount gives you enormous flexibility.

In fact, I wonder if there isn't a possibility for publishers to create new imprints in this new world. Just like there are 'low-cost' airlines, I wonder if there can be low-cost publishing options. Let's say you are a big publisher and you find a book that you think will sell, just not to your 5,000 unit minimum. You shift it over to your low cost imprint. For this imprint, you do minimal editing. You basically accept a one-pass editing model. You have a generic cover that is used by all books of the imprint -- no custom art. The cover has a slot for a title and an author or two. No book-specific promotion. You might promote the brand/imprint itself, but not the book or author. Electronic, of course so that there is no $5,000 print run. You either sell it direct from your web site, or direct to a retailer web site with no middleman cut of the sales. This (and other cost-savings moves) let you have a smaller break-even point. The buyer knows they are getting a step above self-published: a professionally selected book with some editing, but doesn't expect all of the polish of a major label. Prices are a bit cheaper and volumes are likewise smaller. However, the branding of the new imprint should bring higher sales than your typical self-published novel.

09-25-2009, 02:23 PM	#46
emellaich Wizard Posts: 1,101 Karma: 4388403 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Palm>Ebookman>IPaq>Axim>Cybook>Kndl2>IPAD>Kndl3SO>Voyager>Oasis	Increased flexibility too ... Finally, there is the increased flexibility of ebooks. That $1 per book figure assumes that we print exactly the correct amount of books. If we print twice as many books as we sell, the actual printing cost is $2 per book sold. I would assume that in most cases you have some amount of books left over, so the actual printing cost per book sold will be above $1. Even if you sell out there is an issue. Let's assume that you never print in quantities lower than 5,000 for economic batch reasons. You print a run of 5,000 and you sell out. You could have actually sold 6,000, but since you didn't print that many initially, its too expensive to go back for an over-run of 1,000. As a result you lost 1,000 in sales. If this had been an ebook, you would have captured all of those lost sales since you wouldn't really run out. Therefore, you could have either made more profit, or you could have charged less per book and still hit your profit target. Of course the lower charge per book would increase the sales further and have increased your profit likewise. The fact that you don't have to pre-determine the sales amount gives you enormous flexibility. In fact, I wonder if there isn't a possibility for publishers to create new imprints in this new world. Just like there are 'low-cost' airlines, I wonder if there can be low-cost publishing options. Let's say you are a big publisher and you find a book that you think will sell, just not to your 5,000 unit minimum. You shift it over to your low cost imprint. For this imprint, you do minimal editing. You basically accept a one-pass editing model. You have a generic cover that is used by all books of the imprint -- no custom art. The cover has a slot for a title and an author or two. No book-specific promotion. You might promote the brand/imprint itself, but not the book or author. Electronic, of course so that there is no $5,000 print run. You either sell it direct from your web site, or direct to a retailer web site with no middleman cut of the sales. This (and other cost-savings moves) let you have a smaller break-even point. The buyer knows they are getting a step above self-published: a professionally selected book with some editing, but doesn't expect all of the polish of a major label. Prices are a bit cheaper and volumes are likewise smaller. However, the branding of the new imprint should bring higher sales than your typical self-published novel.