Thread: Simon & Schuster is delaying ebooks by four months
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Old 12-17-2009, 03:32 PM   #211
Xenophon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by charleski View Post
They're cheaper to the extent that a 20-30% discount on the physical price would be reasonable. Anything more is sheer fantasy.

Tim Hutchinson (the CEO of Hodder Headline) did a breakdown of costs in 1998. It was:
Booksellers' share: 55%
Manufacturing costs: 15%
Overheads: 9%
Marketing (including some distribution cost): 8%
Royalties: 8%
Publisher's profit: 5%

The idea that an ebook should be half the price is just wishful thinking.
I strongly disagree with you! The folks and Baen & Webscriptions are doing just fine selling eBooks for $6 (less in bundles). They've done it via disintermediation (a.k.a cutting out the middle-men). And their books go on sale at $6 2 weeks before the hardcover comes out (with its $27-ish cover price).

Now if you said that price cuts that large won't be possible without changing the overall structure of marketing and distribution, I'd agree with that in a heart-beat!

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