ANOTHER "Why Do Ebooks Cost So Much?" ARTICLE

[Fbone]

Who pays the bandwidth and electronic storage costs?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

So... how much does DRM cost, out of that $12.99 book? Is that lumped into the fifty cent design costs?

Adobe Content Server 4 (used to provide PDF and ePub DRM) costs $0.22 per book sold. That's about 1.7% of a $12.99 ebook. Or over 3.6% of a $6 ebook. or over 11% of a $1.99 ebook.

DRM. You know it makes no sense.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Adobe Content Server 4 (used to provide PDF and ePub DRM) costs $0.22 per book sold. That's about 1.7% of a $12.99 ebook. Or over 3.6% of a $6 ebook. or over 11% of a $1.99 ebook.

DRM. You know it makes no sense.

Any setup/contract/minimum costs? I'm pretty sure that Random Webperson can't offer ebooks with ADE DRM by just adding $.25 each to their asking price.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Any setup/contract/minimum costs? I'm pretty sure that Random Webperson can't offer ebooks with ADE DRM by just adding $.25 each to their asking price.

There's a capital cost of $10,000 for the software, and a compulsory service plan fee of $1,500 per year (after the first year). And, of course, the hardware to run it on and someone to look after it.

You can find the pricing details by going to Adobe's website, searching for content server four, and then clicking on the "Buy" button — this takes you to a page that details the charges.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Who pays the bandwidth and electronic storage costs?

Compared to their overall budget it's very little. All other costs of publishing remain the same. These are additional cost required to increase profits.

And don't forget, YOU are the one paying for ALL of their costs when you buy a book. Even if all you do is look at their website, and buy no books, SOMEONE is paying those costs when they buy something.

Another way to put it is like this. You buy an ereader. You can, and do, return it in 30 days with no restocking charge. Question: Does the company loose money?

Answer: No. The product that is bought, and kept, has coverage for "other" operating expenses built in to the price. What does happen is that they make less profit than they want to.

Are they happy? No. But that is part of the cost of doing business. And it's added on to the price tag.

Lets make it even simpler. The Pick-A-Store-Name has a certain amount of theft no mater what they do. Do they like it? No. But the average annual theft cost is added into the price of whatever you buy.

[Adjust]

I love this bit.

Sure, the quality of the product might suffer, but with a juicy margin like that, it’s not hard to imagine well-known writers going rogue.

I'm agreeing with what everyone is saying...but without the publishers publicity department putting in the hours...these "Well-known" writers would still be on welfare trying to knock on doors, while holding their Kindle masterpiece tucked under their arm. Stacking a kindle Pyramid display in shopping centers across the country.

[Mrgauth]

Way overpriced and I feel like an idiot half the time buying one. Thus, why after a year and a 1/2 of owning a reader I have only bought maybe 10-12 books total.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

There's a capital cost of $10,000 for the software, and a compulsory service plan fee of $1,500 per year (after the first year). And, of course, the hardware to run it on and someone to look after it.

You can find the pricing details by going to Adobe's website, searching for content server four, and then clicking on the "Buy" button — this takes you to a page that details the charges.

That would be a lot of money for me to pay. But we're not talking about "our" personal budgets. And I would make a WAG that Amazon spends that much an hour at Christmas time in UPS/FEDEX charges.

But a company looks at the costs involved in producing a product, adds in the extras, and then decides if they can make a profit. And many of those in the ebook business believe that it's not too high.

But on the other hand the yearly service contract that my company charges for the security software that I install starts around $1,800 and goes up depending on the size of the site. To those who need it it's not a problem. Same with those that think that they need DRM.

Leaving aside the big name authors. Would you say that a big part of the difference in price between a 350 page book selling on Smashwords for $1.99 and a similar 350 page DRM book selling on Amazon for $9.55 is due to the DRM?

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Adjust

...but without the publishers publicity department putting in the hours...these "Well-known" writers would still be on welfare trying to knock on doors, while holding their Kindle masterpiece tucked under their arm. Stacking a kindle Pyramid display in shopping centers across the country.

There's such a thing as the herd mentality.

However the publishers big publicity campaigns are wasted on me and many others.

How? The book BLOCKBUSTER by Joe Schmoe gets a lot of publicity. On every TV station, Oprah, etc. Walk into a book store and there's a big stack of hard cover copies with the author, Joe Schmoe, himself signing covers.

Only $24.95, get em while there hot! No, I'll wait for the paperback.

Only $24.95 $18.95, get em while there hot! Looks good but I'll wait.

A year later the paperback book comes out for $9.99. But I'm only buying ebooks and I've forgoten all about that BIG promotion a year ago.

[HamsterRage]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Who pays the bandwidth and electronic storage costs?

Amazon, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords. You know...the retailers.

[Adjust]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

There's such a thing as the herd mentality.

A year later the paperback book comes out for $9.99. But I'm only buying ebooks and I've forgoten all about that BIG promotion a year ago.

Let me say again, I'm agreeing with you all, just throwing this out there for the sake of discussion

Yeah maybe, but I imagine you would be the minority, willing to wait out a year, and still remember why you wanted to read it in the first place. Oh wait, it was because the publishers publicity department told you about it. because I don't think you'd know it was there if the Author quietly released to it Amazon. Me thinks it would get swallowed up in the myriad of other novels in the same genre...

I wager the bulk of the reading public are impulse readers and are swayed by the shopping mall display stands, and think "wow this must be a good book if it's got a pretty looking pyramid"

you see my point?

Also there's nothing nicer then getting you first edition signed by the Author...

How's said author going to sign someone's Kindle...

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Baen is such a good example because they are a traditional paper book publisher, with editors, designers, distribution; books printed and shipped to mainstream bookstores all over the US and some internationally; paying advances and royalties to authors. And yet for over 10 years they've been releasing all their publications (yes, including their first edition $25 hardbacks) as ebooks for $6 or less, without DRM, two weeks before the paper books hit store shelves, with no geographical restrictions.

So whenever a traditional publisher tries to justify high ebook prices with talk of problems of piracy, of lessening the value of paper books, of the need to hold back the ebook release date, of the expense of ebook production, of contract problems........ Baen!

Post #135 written by dmccunney explains why Baen isnt your typical publisher and shouldnt be compared to others.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...t=91395&page=9

[Steven Lake]

I find the solution to all that is one thing. USE EPUB!! There, problem solved.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Adjust

Let me say again, I'm agreeing with you all, just throwing this out there for the sake of discussion

Yeah maybe, but I imagine you would be the minority, willing to wait out a year, and still remember why you wanted to read it in the first place. Oh wait, it was because the publishers publicity department told you about it. because I don't think you'd know it was there if the Author quietly released to it Amazon. Me thinks it would get swallowed up in the myriad of other novels in the same genre...

I wager the bulk of the reading public are impulse readers and are swayed by the shopping mall display stands, and think "wow this must be a good book if it's got a pretty looking pyramid"

you see my point?

Also there's nothing nicer then getting you first edition signed by the Author...

How's said author going to sign someone's Kindle...

And this is a discussion. We're just looking at it from different vantage points, and mostly agree.

I would say that in so far a a book goes the publicity department will have a great effect on people wanting to buy "the book". They, the author, the editor, proofreaders, et al can make a book a big seller.

What cuts the legs out from under that effort, for me, is the publishers price. In the past, the publishing company made most of its profit from the hardback book. In general, that's ok with me. If you really want the book enough to pay $25, fine.

I'm in a book store so seldom that I'm not sure anymore, but I think that the paperback didn't come out 'til a year after the hardback. I've only bought a few hardback books at the full price.


"Yeah maybe, but I imagine you would be the minority, willing to wait out a year, and still remember why you wanted to read it in the first place."

Sorry if I misled you. I used to wait a year and hope that I would recall what books I wanted to buy. But if it wasn't one by an author that I liked, I usually forgot about it.

So in my case, all that advertising money went down the drain.

Ebooks present new challenges. And one will be how to get my attention on an ebook website. There is so much I like to read. And so much that will make me click away in a flash.

[Adjust]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

And this is a discussion. We're just looking at it from different vantage points, and mostly agree.

True...I didn't want to rub anyone the wrong way

What cuts the legs out from under that effort, for me, is the publishers price. In the past, the publishing company made most of its profit from the hardback book. In general, that's ok with me. If you really want the book enough to pay $25, fine.

"Yeah maybe, but I imagine you would be the minority, willing to wait out a year, and still remember why you wanted to read it in the first place."

Ebooks present new challenges. And one will be how to get my attention on an ebook website. There is so much I like to read. And so much that will make me click away in a flash.

I guess in the end it will all come down to Cover design?

Sorry if I misled you. I used to wait a year and hope that I would recall what books I wanted to buy. But if it wasn't one by an author that I liked, I usually forgot about it.

Yeap but, unless your following the Author around...

My point is if it wasn't for the Author getting published in the first place and the Advertising which goes along with it people would not have known about them, or brought their books for them to get as big as they have become and therefore have the balls to dump their publishers...

Do you think the likes of J.K Rowling or a Dan Brown would be where they are today if they simply unloaded their little Harry Potter, or Da Vinci Code eBook onto Amazon? without the marketing juggernaut that went with it????