[QUOTE=rlauzon;86756]But this cost is distributed over all the books (both e and p) that are sold. So if the costs to make the "prototype" eBook was $50,000 and 100,000 books are sold, that cost represents only $0.50 of price of the book.[quote]
But, you don't know how many ebook copies will sell ahead of time. So you have to factor that in.
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Originally Posted by rlauzon
No you don't. This is what software is for. Many sites already have systems set up that store their eBooks in single format and the convert to the customer's requested format when the customer buys the eBook.
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What sites that sell ebooks are setup to generate your ebook on the fly?
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Originally Posted by rlauzon
The cost of which is, again, distributed over all the eBooks sold, plus whatever other services that web site is running - making that cost very small. Remember that a web site may be only one of many being hosted by the provider. One staff, many sites = low web site staff costs.
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We are not talking about the cost of the site to the hosting company. We are talking about the cost of the website to the shop selling the ebooks.
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Originally Posted by rlauzon
Actually, there are costs and there are costs. You seem to be treating all costs as equal. They aren't.
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The costs for the ebook are equal to the dead tree version up to the point of printing/making the ebooks. The rest of the costs are now going to be different. But they are still expenses that need to be taken into account. And yes, I do expect the rest of the expenses to be lower for the ebook version.
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Originally Posted by rlauzon
On a per-book basis, one time costs like writing the book itself, represents an insignificant cost when compared to the paper, the warehousing and transportation costs.
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There are also costs such as editing, paying the agent, proofreading, meetings, etc. all go into getting the book to the final stage where it can be print and made into an ebook.
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Originally Posted by rlauzon
If you break up the selling price of a pBook into the costs that price represents, you will find that the highest of those numbers represent the physical attributes of the pBook. Most of those attributes don't exist for eBooks. The other attributes are replaced by much lower cost electronic versions.
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I would love to see how much of the price of a dead tree edition is going to the materials used to print the book. Now if we take that away, what's left should be the retail price for the ebook before any discounts.
But what I don't get is how some book stores can sell a book at a lower cost then the ebook. I've email Ficitonwise about a book that was more expenisve the Amazon's price and got a reply that the price was set by the publisher. Well why not go and talk to the publisher and try to get the price reduced so it might actually sell?