It’s time to start blaming publishers for the troubles of the publishing industry

[sabredog]

An interesting opinion piece regarding publisher's contribution to the trouble of the publishing industry.

They lie about the costs and benefits of ebooks. Publishers dragged their feet for years on the digital front, and then dragged their feet on digital pricing, often claiming that ebooks cost almost as much to produce as hardcover books. Those were all lies

[Pinecone]

Funny, the article linked in his statement that "..claiming that ebooks cost almost as much to produce..." actually shows how that is not a lie.

[spindlegirl]

I think the people who find the line about e-books being "as much" in cost hard to swallow are the ones who actually own both and have had to distribute both to other people at any given time.

I've e-mailed copies of "Oliver Twist" to everyone who has ever wanted it. I've physically mailed copies of the same to a couple people. Those physical copies are gone. I still have Oliver Twist sitting in my Calibre. Funny that. I can still send the book to an infinite amount of people. I don't have to go on a bus, write "book" on the customs form, tick "gift", boom, email and it's done.

Yes, the costs of producing the original story didn't just make themselves. But they copy themselves quite handily. I didn't even write or produce Oliver Twist, yet I possess the power to spam everyone in the world with it. Who wants to give me a Thousand hardcover copies of Oliver Twist for free?

All the sob stories in the world about how the creation of the book is the same don't change the fact that with electronic media, all the work is front loaded.

However there is still plenty of time to brainwash the young.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Funny, the article linked in his statement that "..claiming that ebooks cost almost as much to produce..." actually shows how that is not a lie.

It is meant to show that on purpose. You need to follow the all lies link in the article to see the other point beeing taken apart. Of course not everything you read on the internet is 100% true, some of it is even 100% lie. Most of it is a mixture of truth and lies (sometimes by obmission, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident).

As for the main article: it is very interesting that the big6 screwing themselves on profit with agency pricing. The only one reason to conclude they are doing it is for attempt of crushing all small publishers. The fear must be real that best-selling authors go to different publishers, because they feel like they are beeing screwed. Keep the authors happy, and don't just eliminate competition.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

All the sob stories in the world about how the creation of the book is the same don't change the fact that with electronic media, all the work is front loaded.

And 90% of the work is frontloaded for traditional books, too.

However there is still plenty of time to brainwash the young.

That goes for both sides.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

And 90% of the work is frontloaded for traditional books, too.

And yet, a lot of the frontloaded work CAN be shared between pbook and ebook. If you produce both, then the cost in producing each would be naturally lower than to produce only one or the other. The production pipeline needs to be changed for the big publishers. They appear to be acting like old dinosaurs ready for extinction if they don't learn to adapt to new media. If it was true that they spend the same amount of money on a ebook in production than on pbook,then why is it that OCR type errors sneak into the ebook version that are not in the pbook version? No wonder authors want a publisher that does equally good work on pbook and ebook.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

And 90% of the work is frontloaded for traditional books, too.

Whether that's 90% or 10% of the cost for print books depends on the size and length of the print run. The longer a book is in print, the more of its costs will be physical expenses.

Print books and ebooks have the same costs--until it's time to print. At which point, the ebook costs $0 per copy, and the pbook costs ~15-30%* cover price per copy to print... plus a monthly cost to the publisher for keeping those resources available and ready.

(While big publishers are fond of glibly stating that books can cost "as little as" 10% of cover price to print, a few statements from publishers who've released *specific* numbers indicate it's often much higher. If Macmillan wants people to believe print, storage, and distribution costs are negligible, they can release some hard numbers: for 10,000 copies of the new Wheel of Time book, how much did it cost to print? To ship? We'll do the math ourselves, thanks.)

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Funny, the article linked in his statement that "..claiming that ebooks cost almost as much to produce..." actually shows how that is not a lie.

The article doesn't make the case that the cost of e-books are as great as the cost of paper books. Instead, the article merely refutes the claim that there are NO costs involved in the production of e-books.

[Daithi]

One of the article's points was --

They [the publishers] fought tooth and nail to get Amazon to agree to an agency model pricing structure that actually made them LESS money than Amazon’s existing $9.99-across-the-board pricing scheme. They could do the exact same thing with Amazon’s regular books, and they should because Amazon’s prices are a greater threat to indie bookstores than $9.99 ebooks were to the future of digital publishing.

I disagree. I may like little indie bookstores, indie hardware stores, indie clothing stores, indie grocery stores, etc. They look nice on a small town's main street. However, I also like cheaper prices, wider selections, and the convenience of at home shopping. I don't think Amazon should be required to sell its books for the same amount as a tiny indie book store. Just as I don't expect to pay the same amount for a new kitchen from Home Depot compared to a new kitchen from the specialty store down the street.

One of the points to big warehouse stores like Amazon is that they keep overhead as low as possible and their overhead is spread across millions of books. An indie bookstore has a much much higher overhead cost per book. Amazon passes these savings to the consumer, which attracts more customers. Without the ability to sell at lower prices Amazon would not sell nearly as many books, and at some point it would be Amazon facing extinction. Amazon's overhead per book is only lower if they sell a ton of books.

As a consumer I want the choice to decide if I'm more interested in low prices, wider selections, and convenient home delivery -- or if I'm willing to pay extra from my local indie bookstore. Maybe only one of these models will be able to survive, but I'm not convinced that it should be the indie model.

[spindlegirl]

Hi My name is Charles Dickens. I have this great new E-book called Oliver Twist. I have just sent it to a thousand people for free. How much would it cost me to make and send a hardcover copy of this book to a thousand more people?

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by sabredog

An interesting opinion piece regarding publisher's contribution to the trouble of the publishing industry.

Interesting proposition !

[BeccaPrice]

Even if (and I think the jury is out on this) the cost of making an ebook was close to the cost of a paper book, there's no excuse for charging the same price on a back list book as opposed to a new release. I won't pay $7.99 for a 20-year-old book.

[xg4bx]

until i see numbers i'm going to err on the side of caution and figure the publishers are full of doody, just like they are with almost everything else.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

until i see numbers i'm going to err on the side of caution and figure the publishers are full of doody, just like they are with almost everything else.

[Quexos]

I agree with the title of this thread. Let us blame the publishers. They are evil I say !