Cost of eBooks vs dead-tree books

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

So how does the author get paid? Does he or she get half the amount for an ebook that he or she gets for a paper book? It's hard enough making enough money to be a full time author.

Indeed.
The pricing of a paper book or ebook is complicated and many self published authors are too cheap.

Most full time authors are on welfare as people on Zero Hours / Minimum wage make more. Only a small fraction of authors published by big publishers make enough to live on.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

So how does the get paid? Does he or she get half the amount for an ebook that he or she gets for a paper book? It's hard enough making enough money to be a full time .

Obvious!
The author gets paid for his content in both cases.

There should be more available with the ebook after the savings from not having a lumberjack cut the tree, hauling the tree to the pulp mill, making the paper, making ink, printing and binding the book, shipping the book to the warehouse, storing it, shipping the book to the dealer, then to the customer.

My estimate is that at a minimum half the cost of the book will be saved by going with the ebook.

Now at this point the author can *dicker about the price all he wants.

*dicker - to deal, swap, or trade with petty bargaining; bargain; haggle, etc.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Indeed.
The pricing of a paper book or ebook is complicated and many self published authors are too cheap.

Most full time authors are on welfare as people on Zero Hours / Minimum wage make more. Only a small fraction of authors published by big publishers make enough to live on.

This is true for many in the arts, especially the creative arts. That is where that old and so true line comes in. "You chose this life!"

[Apache]

That is why painters used to have patrons.
Apache

[HLS]

Why do we keep talking about the same topic a 1,000 times lol

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Indeed.
The pricing of a paper book or ebook is complicated and many self published authors are too cheap.

Most full time authors are on welfare as people on Zero Hours / Minimum wage make more. Only a small fraction of authors published by big publishers make enough to live on.

This is part of the reason I support universal basic income (UBI).

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by issybird

TPs came long before ebooks. And seriously, the price relationship between the two is at most tangential reflecting the extent a buyer is willing to substitute one for the other.

I don't think the price relationship is all that tangential. There are plenty of books out there that were available as mass market paperbacks and the ebook price was about the same. Then the paper book was made available only as a trade paperback and what do you know? The ebook price increased.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by frahse

Obvious!
The author gets paid for his content in both cases.

There should be more available with the ebook after the savings from not having a lumberjack cut the tree, hauling the tree to the pulp mill, making the paper, making ink, printing and binding the book, shipping the book to the warehouse, storing it, shipping the book to the dealer, then to the customer.

My estimate is that at a minimum half the cost of the book will be saved by going with the ebook.

Now at this point the author can *dicker about the price all he wants.

*dicker - to deal, swap, or trade with petty bargaining; bargain; haggle, etc.

The break out of the pricing of a paper book has been posted here before, only a small percentage of the cost of a paper book is associated with the physical act of printing the book, i.e. paper and ink. Roughly half goes to the retailer, most of the publisher costs are associated with basic business expenses and the cost of actually creating the text (author, editor, artwork, etc...) and making up for other authors not covering the cost of their book. The last is the expense that most people tend to either ignore or discount.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I want it all, I want it now, and I want it cheap. Welcome to the age of entitlement.

As someone who ONLY reads ebooks, this sums up my reaction to some of the "they should be cheaper" arguments. Apparently, " the obviously satisfactory and logical answer " boils down to, "I want it, therefore it should be cheaper."

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

As someone who ONLY reads ebooks, this sums up my reaction to some of the "they should be cheaper" arguments. Apparently, " the obviously satisfactory and logical answer " boils down to, "I want it, therefore it should be cheaper."

Yep. That's why I posted it. I prefer ebooks. Thus I'm willing to put my money where my preference lies. I'm perfectly willing to pay well for the things I value highly (but don't actually require). Just as I don't want my employer only paying me what they can get away with paying me, I want to help those who create the books I love to support themselves well enough to be able to write more. I don't live in a vacuum of me when it comes to consumables. I am not the only one who matters in the supply and demand cycle.

[ownedbycats]

With a paper book, you're buying the book itself. But with an eBook, you're only buying the license to be permitted to read the book. They can literally revoke it at any time for any reason whatsoever with no recourse, or put DRM on it that depending on the region you might not be allowed to legally strip.

If a publisher sold you a paper book, but said "we can magically teleport it away at any time, sucks to be you" that wouldn't be acceptable to sell that at the same price as a non-magically-teleporting book. but when it's a digital form it is acceptable?

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

As someone who ONLY reads ebooks, this sums up my reaction to some of the "they should be cheaper" arguments. Apparently, " the obviously satisfactory and logical answer " boils down to, "I want it, therefore it should be cheaper."

Oh for goodness sakes! The argument is "Ebooks are cheaper to produce than paper books, so they should be cheaper in price." You can argue about why it doesn't work that way, but you shouldn't be casting shade on those making that argument. It's a reasonable stand.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I want to help those who create the books I love to support themselves well enough to be able to write more.

THIS is the issue I have with the pricing of books. I would love to be able to buy more books BY authors whose work I enjoy FROM them, to know that they are getting the lion's share of what I pay.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I don't think the price relationship is all that tangential. There are plenty of books out there that were available as mass market paperbacks and the ebook price was about the same. Then the paper book was made available only as a trade paperback and what do you know? The ebook price increased.

Perhaps the prices are similar because they’re reacting to the same changes in the market? I’m not saying there’s no influence because you do have to consider the substitutability of the two, but it’s not necessarily true that there’s a cause and effect here.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

With a paper book, you're buying the book itself. But with an eBook, you're only buying the license to be permitted to read the book. They can literally revoke it at any time for any reason whatsoever with no recourse, or put DRM on it that depending on the region you might not be allowed to legally strip.

If a publisher sold you a paper book, but said "we can magically teleport it away at any time, sucks to be you" that wouldn't be acceptable to sell that at the same price as a non-magically-teleporting book. but when it's a digital form it is acceptable?

They are not the same thing. Unless and until people accept that, they’re going to be arguing from false assumptions.

Originally Posted by rkomar

Oh for goodness sakes! The argument is "Ebooks are cheaper to produce than paper books, so they should be cheaper in price." You can argue about why it doesn't work that way, but you shouldn't be casting shade on those making that argument. It's a reasonable stand.

No. You can make an argument that ebooks are cheaper to produce so they could be cheaper in price, but that doesn’t mean that they should be. As has been said over and over, people would like them to be cheaper, so they continue to make up specious reasons to support that. I’m not even saying that there might not be good reasons to argue for cheaper ebooks based on demand elasticity, but cost of production isn’t it.

[issybird]

A gentle reminder to members not to engage in political comments. Thanks.