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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
However, if the pbook is being simultaneously produced, those costs are part of an existing business model. Dan Brown's ebook costs are marginal (price of doc conversion & editing, if any, plus a bit of IT/uploading costs), because the advance, edit, proof & marketing costs were assumed to be included in the pbook publication.
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Save that you really can't allocate all of the costs to the paper version, and decide you get the ebook free. (Well, you
can, but from an accounting stand-point, you
shouldn't.)
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Books that go to ebook *only* have substantial costs that many people overlook; books that are being printed by mainstream publishers are almost-free revenue sources added to an active marketing arrangement.
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Using that logic, you can argue that paper books should be priced cheaper, because ebooks provide a broader base over which to allocate the costs. I don't see any publisher buying the argument, though you are welcome to make it to them.
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The hard part is convincing the publishers that each ebook sale doesn't represent a lost hardcover sale.
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Especially when it might very well
be a lost hardcover sale?
I see publishers delaying release of ebook editions for the same reason they don't issue the mass market PB at the same time as the hardcover. Some folks specifically want the hardcover. Others want the book
now, and will pay a premium for the hardcover edition to get it, but would not pay the premium if the PB edition was available at the same time.
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Dennis