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I would like to know what sales volume these figures are based on. As others have indicated here many of the fees involved are for the overall print run, and are not calculated on a 'per sale' basis.
This article also doesn't address the issue of paperback releases. Presumably, if the 'per sale' costs for a hard back are as high as quoted, and paperback costs are similar (as many have stated), then paperbacks would be sold at a loss...? Oh, wait! I forgot! Because publishers sell many more paperbacks than hardbacks, the costs per copy must be lower.
Further, all the editing of the actual content (not copyediting, proof-reading etc) only needs to be done once, regardless of whether the book is released as HB, TPB, PB or EB. And most of the marketing is done for the first release of the book into whatever territory.
As a final point (perhaps slightly off topic), has anyone checked out Penguin's website? They sell all DTB and ebooks at the same price as retailers sell for (7.99 for a PB etc), presumably so they don't undercut their customers (the distributors and booksellers). So for every copy they sell, they take both the publisher's cut and the booksellers cut. I wonder how many books they sell off their website ....?
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