Quote:
Originally Posted by kjk
This to me, is really the point. Everyone gets that like all digital media, conceptually, the 2nd and subsequent "copies" of an eBook are practically free. The real question is how much the "first" copy costs  |
Isn't it the same for a paperbook? Once you bought the press, did the layout, got the machine up and running then you only have the almost negligible cost (for large runs) of paper and print. Electricity you need to delivery ebooks, too. The point is all costs included in that "first book" (including all overheads, editing, layout, salaries and wages, taxes, etc) have to be recovered. And they will be spread out over the number of copies made, both e and p. And corporations exist to make a profit (when did that become a dirty word) just as people got to work to make a profit (salary or wage). Prices will come down when companies can be sure that they will sell more units that way and increase overall income. Right now we would get a lot of companies going belly up and a lot of unemployment if the prices for ebooks were as low as some hope them to be.
When someone is getting paid a wage, why don't we say "hey, he only needs 500 a month to survive, why should he be paid 2000? That will make our ebooks more expensive!". You have to pay people a market wage and books, e or p, have to sell at a market price. If we the buyers decide that is too expensive and stay away, that is when things will be changing. Not buy analyzing publishers' and booksellers' cost structures. They want to mark up 1% or 500%, it is a free world! (unless you live in some European country with government controlled fixed prices on books -- which are invariably much, much higher).