|
While I do believe there are costs associated with eBook production, I also believe there is no viable reason why an eBook should cost more than a mass market paperback edition, and actually think it should be about a dollar or so less.
Let's take the average $8 paperback as an example. Most bookstores get at least a 45% discount off cover when they buy from the distributor (or at least they did when I managed a bookstore) which means the distributor is going to have to pay less than that to stay in business. I'm not sure what a distributor pays for a book, but I don't see any way it can be more than about 40% of cover (or 60% discount from cover to keep the numbers the same).
That means taking $1.00 off the mmpb cover price for the eBook edition will cost the publisher $0.40 in lost revenue, and as we've seen from earlier in the thread that figure is in the approximate ballpark of the printing costs.
As to DRM, that's a distribution cost.
So from what I can tell, there's no reason eBooks should cost more than the mmpb edition of the same book, and they should actually cost less as both distribution and retail costs are lower. In the worst-case scenario, they should be available for the Amazon cost of the mmpb edition.
Baen can make a profit on $6.00 eBooks, and Webscriptions has enough other publishers on board at the same price point that it's not unique to Baen. So the question becomes why can't other publishers?
(Please note - I do understand publishers not wanting to release a low-priced eBook simultaneously with the hardcover - that's the same as not doing a simultaneous hardcover and mmpb release. However the low-priced eBook edition should at the very least be released with the mmpb.)
|