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Old 01-06-2010, 02:05 PM   #9
NightGeometry
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Posts: 139
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Brighton, England
Device: Sony PRS-T1, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX
Very interesting K-Thom, one part I don't really get though is:

Quote:
Originally Posted by K-Thom View Post
...Even then some of the titles will never make a profit, being subsidized by the bestselling eBooks.
I had to reduce my product line by about 100 titles last summer which simply cost me money and never really earned some. No whining, publisher's risk.

If a title doesn't cover it's initial cost in the first two years, it's supposed to be a non-starter and I consider it a loss. Each additional month just is an attempt to regain part of the investment.
After the initial investment is there really much of an ongoing cost? I.e. why would you ever drop a book.

I understand that there is a potential cost to accounting, and that maybe the extension after 5 years is a further cost. But surely the accounting should be mostly automatic, and the server/disk/bandwidth cost of ebooks must be so close to zero that it doesn't matter. I guess IT costs include backups and maintenance, which in bulk could start to add up.

In short, and if it's not a business confidential issue, would you be able to expand on why you'd drop an ebook, and what the extra costs are? Apart from contract expiry, which I assume is reasonably straight forward.

This is a completely honest question, with no subtext. I know I assume unit costs are pretty much zero, I suspect a number of other readers here assume the same, so a bit more info on this may help those of us with these assumptions learn more.

Of course, if it is business sensitive, fair enough.

Thanks.
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