04-20-2011, 10:05 AM | #301 |
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04-20-2011, 10:18 AM | #302 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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04-21-2011, 04:20 AM | #303 |
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Digital goods sure have made the concept of value confusing. How much does it cost to download a purchased version of Adobe CS5? Like $2,000 or something? Sure it's the result of a lot of time and skilled labor, but so is the 900 pages of Lonesome Dove, and that's $12.99. I don't even know what to think anymore.
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04-21-2011, 11:07 AM | #304 |
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It isn't quite that equivalent. Try comparing how many people Adobe employed for years to create the whole CS5 suite versus 900 pages from an author.
How many man-years did Lonesome Dove require to write? I'll be generous and say three man-years. Adobe has over 9,000 employees in total (from their Yahoo finance profile). I don't know for sure but I imagine about one third of the company works on that suite (versus Flash, Acrobat, and a couple of other odd projects). I'll be conservative and call the effort to release CS5 3,000 man-years (much of the CS5 suite takes more than 12 months between cycles). So you're comparing 3 to 3000. That's two orders of magnitude and it just so happens to nearly match with the price difference you noted ($12.99 to $2K). Also a large proportion of CS5 users qualify for upgrade pricing. In reality, prices in unregulated markets are always what the market will bear. But the example you cited just happens to have a rule-of-thumb answer as well. |
04-21-2011, 10:49 PM | #305 |
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Additionally CS5 is a money making tool, while the book is just for entertainment. Also consider the number of units Adobe expects to be sold after investing so many man hours. Not to mention the overhead.
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04-22-2011, 02:26 AM | #306 |
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True enough. Personally, I would rather have a copy of Lonesome Dove, and I didn't even like it that much.
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04-22-2011, 11:59 AM | #307 |
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Well, an author does expect to be paid for their efforts. We have raging discussions about that constantly here. It certainly affects writers, to compare what they expect to earn in a "real job" (lol) versus following their drive to write. The average Adobe employee probably does have more income, and at a steadier rate, than the average published author.
OTOH, I suspect Larry McMurty makes considerably more than just about anyone below the executive level at Adobe, having written books that were made into successful movies. Of course the dude is in his 70's and worked his @ss off writing for many years! |
04-22-2011, 12:21 PM | #308 | |
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1-star price protesters crank up the review numbers without saying anything bad about the novel itself, possibly drawing attention to the book and the positive content reviews, while maybe even drowning out negative content reviews. The publisher could be loving this. Or not. Either way, the ebook is #1 on NYT last I checked. |
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04-22-2011, 12:55 PM | #309 |
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I think this horse is dead, gentlemen. It is no more, it is an ex horse.
I'm going to call it. TOD 0955 PDT. |
04-22-2011, 07:17 PM | #310 |
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factors in the cost
It has been too long since I visited this site and I intend to be far more regular about my posts and ideas. That said, I am struck by the same discussion I read 2 years ago, the cost of ebooks versus print. I am not in the publishing industry and would ask someone who is truly knowledgeable to break down the cost of a $30 fiction book. Assume it is sold at list. In dollar amount how much to the print cost, distribution, publicity, royalties and other costs I don't know about. I recognize that most books are never sold at list, but this should give a starting point for good discussion.
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04-22-2011, 07:33 PM | #311 | |
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Indeed it has been a while... such breakdowns have been posted in this and other threads already and spawned much discussion... though I can't comment on whether it was good as that's subjective...
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04-22-2011, 09:43 PM | #312 |
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Certainly best sellers are typically heavily discounted, but I think that a trip to Borders and B&N will show that most books in b&m stores are indeed sold at list.
I think that's a big reason fewer people are shopping in the b&m stores. The books are just too darn expensive. |
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