Quote:
Originally Posted by bminata
Even in the scenario where some variables stay the same (promotion, proofread, up-front payment, etc) and publishers have to "subsidize less successful authors" and "no book stand on its own" as mentioned here, in e-publishing the cost for production, warehousing, distribution should be much less than in print. There's really no reason for publishers to insist the price for ebooks should be the same with printed books - other than profits.
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It all comes down to profit in the end, but part of the problem seems to be a cluelessness of how to handle the new e- format (and a laziness in defining a new business model form the gorund up). Hardback and paperback books are what they know, so naturally they try to tie the new e- formats to the old p- formats. This false premise as a starting point is why all the later reasoning goes horribly wrong.
The Author's content is the same, of course, and there are costs assiciated with proofing and formatting the content for e- distribution. One could cynically questions how much actual effort the publishers put into these aspects, as most eBooks seem to be very poorly formatted, often with obvious typos and grammatical errors, or sometimes problems with the way images (e.g. maps) have been inserted.
But as for the other p- costs of "production, warehousing, distribution" and so on are obviously non-existent, save for an incremental cost to host the required web services to sell and distribute the e- formats. So the relationship of eBooks to pBooks is primarily the content (as it should be) and the sooner this ridiculous link between hardcover, paperback and eBook formats is severed the better.