Thread: ebook piracy
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Old 08-03-2009, 03:19 PM   #7
cstross
Cynic
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Who are you? View Post
Paper books aren't that expensive to make, think around the $1 mark.
Actually more like 70 cents for a paperback, but $2-3 for a hardcover.

What eats up the cover price is the distribution chain -- wholesalers and retailers between them trouser about 70% of the cover price, leaving 10% for the author, 10% for manufacturing costs, and 10% for the publisher.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Who are you? View Post
Selling an ebook for $15 doesn't mean that much more profit than selling a paper book for $15.
Correct. Moreover, the publishers have cunningly decided that an ebook is simply a new edition of a book, and must therefore be "printed" and "distributed" exactly the same way, so that royalties can be accounted for using existing bookkeeping methods. The result is an inane concept called an "ebook warehouse", where imaginary books are stored until a bookstore decides to take them to stack on imaginary shelves until a punter buys them, or until they're returned for credit (with imaginary covers stripped)!

Way to lose 70% of the revenue stream (or the opportunity to deliver price cuts direct to the public as a purchasing incentive), guys.
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