Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
Given that the publisher only has a couple of dollars production margin to work with, it's actually not that surprising that ebooks may not be significantly cheaper.
In the current market you need to create at least three different versions (Epub, Kindle, Ereader) and possibly a fourth (PDF), with three different DRM schemes. That adds costs.
Also, since not all ebooks are sold at the same venues as pbooks there are additional marketing costs. Sony doesn't sell paperbacks.
As for setup costs, why should ebooks get a free ride and let the other versions cover all of it? The basics should be split among all editions, with ebooks carrying their share.
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I'm sorry, but "press button 1 for epub conversion, press button 2 for kindle conversion, press button 3 for ereader conversion" is not a significant overhead cost. Most publishers these days use PDF-to-offset printing, meaning the original work starts life as a PDF. The cost of a computer, a low-level grunt, and the conversion software is trivial. Also note that the conversion needs to be done exactly once, not once for every copy of the title to be sold.
No, sony doesn't sell paperbacks. But I can promise you that Sony's eating those marketing costs. Without such marketing, there's no market for its own ereader line. I can also promise you that the retailers specializing in ebooks (I.e. the business that are not in the class of business that sell both ebooks and pbooks, as you mention above) are eating those marketing costs, since that's the core of their business. What the publisher is advertising is the CONTENT, not the FORMAT. Again, that content-based advertising has already been done for the paper book. I've yet to see a single big ad campaign anywhere for "PUBLISHER's new e-book version of paper book TITLE! Buy it now at STORE!" And I can pretty much promise you I never will. Nor will you. It's not a separate campaign. Therefore, it's not a separate cost, Q.E.D.
Why should ebooks get a free ride? Because by and large, they ARE a free ride! No significant extra effort goes into creating an ebook from an existing pbook. No significant extra money goes into storing, distributing, or advertising an ebook created from an existing pbook.