Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
As if they could do it, it would be a no-brainer to do it.
|
No-brainer? Remember, this is the
publishing industry we're talking about.
By the way, I'm 3 stories into
Kai Lung Raises His Voice and loving it.
P.S. Hamlet, if it costs the publisher $10 an hour to hire some college students for that 40-60 hours, that's $400-$600 to convert the book. In publishing terms, that's too small even to be pocket change. Even when you account for royalties, etc., if they're selling the book directly, they'll be turning a profit after the first couple dozen copies.
They're afraid to cut into the sales of their hardcovers. But here's something to think about
:
What if movie studios had refused to release movies on DVD for fear of cutting into their LaserDisc sales? (remember LaserDisc? pretend for the sake of the example that it lasted longer than it did) How much money did they ever make off of LaserDicsc? Not a whole lot, because only a handful of aficionados could afford the $100+ discs and the insanely expensive player. How much do they make off of DVDs? Enough so that DVD profits can surpass theatrical profits, and enough so that they can do straight-to-DVD movies (generally awful ones, but still) and make a profit off those, too. It was getting the price of the movies down to something within the impulse purchase range that made all the difference. Cheaper movies drove sales of DVD players, which expanded the market for movies, allowing economies of scale (and even some competition) to operate and produce still-cheaper movies, etc. Ebooks are still in the LaserDisc stage. Unfortunately, publishers seem to be very slow on the uptake.