Article on ebook profits

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by Highroller

He said acquire/buy. Doesn't mean he bought them all. Maybe 95% of his collection consists of free out of copyright classics ) Not saying that is the case but its possible.

It is highly unlikely if he has 3500 unread paper books. I just don't see the point of having more books on your reader than you can read in a lifetime. Tastes change, 20 years from now he might not even like some of the books that he has.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

It is highly unlikely if he has 3500 unread paper books. I just don't see the point of having more books on your reader than you can read in a lifetime. Tastes change, 20 years from now he might not even like some of the books that he has.

I usually have maybe 1000-2000 unread paper books. If you read only 100 books a year than you will easily read 3500 books.

The point with having access to a lot of books is that you can choose what to read depending on the current situation. But it is unnecessary to have the books on the reader. It is enough to be able to download them.

A reason to buy a book now is that it might not be available later. And since tastes changes it is reasonable to buy widely if you are reading a genre.

[elcreative]

What... you mean you can't buy out-of-copyright classics in paper format? And yes, tastes do change but equally I might like some of the books that I have even more. Anyway wasted conversation collector vs non-collector... neither understands the other's viewpoint...

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

It is highly unlikely if he has 3500 unread paper books. I just don't see the point of having more books on your reader than you can read in a lifetime. Tastes change, 20 years from now he might not even like some of the books that he has.

[elcreative]

Of course your last para hits the nail on the head... possibility of non-availability of a book when I do want to read it but second para misses the point entirely... say I'm having my usual coffee and hour read after work and I finish my book... what do I do, browse and decide what I want or give up reading time because "I am able to download" but haven't so got to wait to get it... not everyone has Wi-Fi/3G access on their reader and given the choice, I want the books I want on my reader whenever I want to choose a new read rather than have Wi-Fi downloading...

Originally Posted by tompe

I usually have maybe 1000-2000 unread paper books. If you read only 100 books a year than you will easily read 3500 books.

The point with having access to a lot of books is that you can choose what to read depending on the current situation. But it is unnecessary to have the books on the reader. It is enough to be able to download them.

A reason to buy a book now is that it might not be available later. And since tastes changes it is reasonable to buy widely if you are reading a genre.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Of course your last para hits the nail on the head... possibility of non-availability of a book when I do want to read it but second para misses the point entirely... say I'm having my usual coffee and hour read after work and I finish my book... what do I do, browse and decide what I want or give up reading time because "I am able to download" but haven't so got to wait to get it... not everyone has Wi-Fi/3G access on their reader and given the choice, I want the books I want on my reader whenever I want to choose a new read rather than have Wi-Fi downloading...

Yes, for now it is rational to have the books on the reader. But very soon we will always be connected. But if memory is cheap there might be no reason to synchronize all you books to all your mobile devices. But conceptually the books should be stored in the cloud.

[elcreative]

Now you bring up the modern bête noire of the cloud... I have a Personal Computer... the key is in the first word... this was to put computing power into the hands of the user rather than the mainframe priesthood and now we're going to be putting everything back into someone else's hands... no, thank you, this neo-luddite wants personal computing with my personal data on my data storage and that includes my books, films and music... I can even use them then when the broadband crashes...

I also have no need to sync my books to other mobile devices, I have an eReader for reading, that's what it's for, why would I read on another general purpose mobile device that isn't optimised for reading?

Originally Posted by tompe

Yes, for now it is rational to have the books on the reader. But very soon we will always be connected. But if memory is cheap there might be no reason to synchronize all you books to all your mobile devices. But conceptually the books should be stored in the cloud.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by elcreative

I also have no need to sync my books to other mobile devices, I have an eReader for reading, that's what it's for, why would I read on another general purpose mobile device that isn't optimised for reading?

Because different devices suits different situations. A backlight reader like a phone is suitable for reading in the dark for example. And so on.

Also if your reader breaks or run out of battery if you have the books and current reading status in the cloud you can just borrow a reader from friend and continue to read.

I mean nobody asks nowadays why you need to have your music and podcast on more than one device.

[elcreative]

I use a light to read in the dark, I've a spare eReader plus multiple computers and primary (and secondary) total backups of my books. Music is likewise backed up on computer systems but I listen to music on a device for playing music which it does very well... different strokes for different folks. Overall I have multi-purpose devices (computers, hard disks and DVDs) for obtaining, backing up and, if necessary accessing books and music but for normal usage I prefer a device that is dedicated and optimised for its task.

Originally Posted by tompe

Because different devices suits different situations. A backlight reader like a phone is suitable for reading in the dark for example. And so on.

Also if your reader breaks or run out of battery if you have the books and current reading status in the cloud you can just borrow a reader from friend and continue to read.

I mean nobody asks nowadays why you need to have your music and podcast on more than one device.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by tompe

I usually have maybe 1000-2000 unread paper books. If you read only 100 books a year than you will easily read 3500 books.

Yes, but that would be true if he would only have the 3500 paper books to read in the next 35 years. But at a rate of 100 books/year it would take
him 250 years to read the 25k ebooks.

Originally Posted by tompe

The point with having access to a lot of books is that you can choose what to read depending on the current situation. But it is unnecessary to have the books on the reader. It is enough to be able to download them.

For me even 100 books to choose from would be too much.

Originally Posted by tompe

A reason to buy a book now is that it might not be available later. And since tastes changes it is reasonable to buy widely if you are reading a genre.

But there will always be new books. And I'm not going to buy a book now to read next year.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by elcreative

What... you mean you can't buy out-of-copyright classics in paper format? And yes, tastes do change but equally I might like some of the books that I have even more. Anyway wasted conversation collector vs non-collector... neither understands the other's viewpoint...

You are right. I don't understand your viewpoint since my only reason for buying books is to read them.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Y
But there will always be new books. And I'm not going to buy a book now to read next year.

People read in different ways. Especially genre readers I think want to read all the books of an author and read them in copyright order. So it is not true that a new book is replaceable with an old one.

Maybe it is like choosing carefully which restaurants you want to go to or just go and eat anywhere.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by screwballl

Out of the gross revenue for each hardcover book, the publisher pays about $3.25 to print, store and ship the book, including unsold copies returned to the publisher by booksellers.
...

False numbers.

Konrath certainly isn't paying anything close to $1.28 per copy he sells on conversion & marketing. And, yeah, Konrath is a single guy with very limited overhead, and no, I don't think mainstream publishers can just copy his method--but the point is, the conversion and marketing "cost per book" are based on an assumed number of sales; increase sales, and those numbers drop. So any action taken that increases sales--like dropping the price--decreases those costs.

The publisher doesn't pay $.50 per copy of ebook to convert it, not the way it pays $3.25 to print & distribute a hardcover book. The hardcover cost is fixed per unit; the ebook cost is fixed per title, and divided by the number of units sold. Or rather, average number of units expected to be sold across their entire print run. Same with advertising: it's not a per-unit cost. (If they're paying almost $1 per sale for ebook advertising, there's something very very WRONG with their business plan.)

I'd very much like to know what's included in "ebook marketing" that's entirely separate from (and therefore, in addition to) pbook marketing.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by tompe

Yes, for now it is rational to have the books on the reader. But very soon we will always be connected. But if memory is cheap there might be no reason to synchronize all you books to all your mobile devices. But conceptually the books should be stored in the cloud.

The vast majority of the ebooks on my Sony aren't purchases; they're "converted documents." (Lots of fanfic. Lots and lots of fanfic.)

I don't think anyone's offering free cloud storage of every document every ebook fan cares to read. Gdocs is free shared cloud storage--but has sharp limits on sized of PDFs; it won't allow manga and other comic books.

Cloud storage of ebooks hits paranoia issues--which aren't small, and aren't going away; plenty of people don't trust Amazon or Google or B&N to store their data, with good reason. All three companies have been known to remove access to controversial materials... if I'm reading Wikileaks documents on my reader, is the cloud storage company going to come after me? It also hits security/privacy issues--can I safely read highly confidential documents from a cloud-accessible reader?

But setting those aside, wifi access isn't, and isn't going to be, universal. I travel to work on an underground train; I don't want my books to shut off when everyone's cellphones shut off. I want my books to work if I'm on vacation a hundred miles from civilization.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

But setting those aside, wifi access isn't, and isn't going to be, universal. I travel to work on an underground train; I don't want my books to shut off when everyone's cellphones shut off. I want my books to work if I'm on vacation a hundred miles from civilization.

Sure, for specific situations you need a local copy.

GPRS or 3G network is in Sweden available nearly everywhere including in underground trains. You really have to work to get to a place were you will not get network using the phone or WiFi.

[elcreative]

And these connections are and always will be free??? Or do I continue to pay (even if micro-payments) every time I want to access my books... if I'm still allowed to actually own books when they float in the cloud...

Originally Posted by tompe

GPRS or 3G network is in Sweden available nearly everywhere including in underground trains. You really have to work to get to a place were you will not get network using the phone or WiFi.