Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusader
I can't see how ebooks could possibly cost only a small amount less than a paper book to produce and distribute.
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Well, I'll try to explain.
Most books do not break even, let alone make a profit. Similar to the music business, the publishers make their money off of the blockbuster books, which in turn subsidize the dozens of less popular books, any of which could become huge for a myriad of unknown and unpredictable reasons. (Or, the publisher just likes releasing a certain type of book, regardless of the profits.)
So, most of the costs are the writer's advance and royalties; editing costs; proofreading; cover and layout costs; legal costs; accounting; PR and marketing; website costs; payment processing; management overhead; and of course, taxes.
EBooks pretty much only save you a few printing and distribution costs. And publishers still have to pay that cost, at least until ebooks take over enough of the market that many titles can be fulfilled via POD instead of by doing huge up-front print runs.
The only instance where the ebook is relieved of most or all of the above costs are public domain books. Which are, in fact, usually free. Funny how that works out.
I.e., the popular misconception that "ebooks cost nothing" merely because they're in a digital format is incorrect.
Savvy?