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. The costs of creating a physical copy would definitely be far higher than that of the ebook.
Ebooks should basically be seen as an added revenue stream. All the expensive work (editing etc.) would be done in the process of creating an actual print book. The ebook uses the digital version of that final manuscript and the cost related to distributing it digitally would have to be negligible.
I think the people to target with complaints are the authors themselves. In the end they stand to gain the most from having an effective distribution channel for their ebooks. They should have the right to decide how that distribution is done, and hopefully most of them will be more than happy to distribute their works to a global audience unlike the idiotic geo-restrictions the publisher slap on ebooks.
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In accounting terms, you really have to 'charge' (in the cost accounting sense) each eBook sale for its pro-rata share of the fixed costs -- editorial, acquisition, author's advance, etc. If eBooks expand your market -- as has happened for Baen -- this has the happy effect of making the fixed costs become a smaller percentage of revenue. But those fixed costs don't go away. The only thing that eBooks avoid is the costs of printing and warehousing.
As for geo-restrictions... Those aren't
just from the publishers, nor are they
just from the authors & agents. Rather, they are an outgrowth of the history of the book market. When an author has already sold US rights to publisher A and commonwealth rights to publisher B, each of those publishers has a reasonable expectation (as a result of the contract!) that the other won't 'invade' their market. Unwinding the problem requires getting
all three parties to agree -- which ain't easy. The overhang of existing contracts is largely to blame for the problem.
Xenophon