[WTFotD] eBooks cost more than hardcover books?!? [modified]

[Peter Somos]

In Hungary e-books have 25% VAT, much higher than paper books' 5% because they treated as service instead of cultural goods :sigh:

[Gregory Gadow]

That is one of the main reasons why all of the ebooks I have are either public domain (old classics where the copyright has expired, including Shakespeare, Twain, Baum, Verne, Poe and Lovecraft) or have been released under the Creative Commons (Cory Doctorow likes to do this, and a number of authors have released short stories, including Kurt Vonnegut and Issac Asimov's estate.) Pay for books? If I'm going to plunk down money, I want something I can give to a friend if it's good, or throw in the river if it isn't.

[Single Step Debugger]

There were rumors in the internet that Amazon initiates a lawsuit against the big publishing houses accusing them for making a cartel in order to keep the eBooks price high. Considering that printing, paper and the distribution are the biggest part of the book’s cost it makes sense. There are a plenty of good books in Amazon from small publishers priced like $9 -$15 for the paper back and $0.99 – $2.99 for the Kindle edition. Now do the math what are the profits of the publisher selling eBook for $15. And no, I don’t believe this $14 profit goes to the author of the book.

There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

[David Crow]

Jörgen Andersson wrote:

...charge after what the customer is prepared to pay. :|

So true.

"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson

"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons

"Some people are making such thorough preparation for rainy days that they aren't enjoying today's sunshine." - William Feather

[puromtec1]

Solution: Go into the eBook business, yourself. Although, the profits may not be as easy as it seems. My favorite online books is books24x7. I don't pay directly (my company does). However, I realize each page of every book is essentially a web page where even graph and charts are represented flawlessly. I wonder who is on the other end authoring? What do they cost?

[Ian Shlasko]

Deyan Georgiev wrote:

Considering that printing, paper and the distribution are the biggest part of the book’s cost it makes sense.

Not entirely true. When doing a small print run or print-on-demand (Like I have to do with my books), these are indeed the majority of the cost... But when you do a large print run for mass market paperbacks (Like the big publishers do), those drop significantly. Don't quote me on this figure, but I believe those drop to about $2 per copy (Hardcovers are more, of course). The rest production (Making up the up-front costs of editing, cover design, etc), marketing, royalties, and profits.

Deyan Georgiev wrote:

Now do the math what are the profits of the publisher selling eBook for $15. And no, I don’t believe this $14 profit goes to the author of the book.

Nope, definitely not... Amazon takes a 30% chunk of the publisher's list price (Maybe the big houses get a slightly better deal). Then the publisher takes their chunk, which varies by contract. The author may actually get a significant percentage, again depending on the contract (I get about 50% from e-book sales of my novels in some channels, closer to 75% in others, but only 15-30% of paperback sales). But all that said, there are two groups setting the prices... * Publishers, who want to maximize profits * Retail channels (Nook store, Apple store, Kindle store, etc) who each have their own guidelines

Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)

[Joe Simes]

wout de zeeuw wrote:

The faster the delivery, the more expensive

That's what (I wished) she said! :-O

[Vikram A Punathambekar]

Thanks, that was informative :thumbsup:

Cheers, विक्रम (Have gone past my troika - 4 CCCs!) "We have already been through this, I am not going to repeat myself." - fat_boy, in a global warming thread :doh:

[Dan Neely]

Ian Shlasko wrote:

Don't quote me on this figure, but I believe those drop to about $2 per copy (Hardcovers are more, of course). The rest production (Making up the up-front costs of editing, cover design, etc), marketing, royalties, and profits.

IIRC it's ~$2 for a novel sized hard cover, roughly half for a mass market paperback, and somewhere in between for a trade paper edition. Commercial print runs are significantly larger; the minimum size for a new book is typically 5k for HC/TPB, and 10k for MMPB, reprint runs can be a bit smaller but IIRC even there the minimum is 5k for a mmpb. Below that you're going to see higher cover prices to compensate for the increased printing cost and increased per copy pre-production (editing/layout/etc) costs. At this level publishers make almost no profit after expenses, almost all of profit (along with the funds needed to subsidize new authors whose first books are almost always net losses) comes from the handful of authors who can sell books at at least 5x these volumes. Distribution and storage costs aren't exactly nothing, and the latter is a big part of why so many authors go out of print. A 5k reprint that only has 1k copies leaving the warehouse a year will end up a net loss due to storage costs.

3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18

[Maximilien]

just bought a ticket online. eTicket : $6 snail mail : $4 go figure.

Watched code never compiles.

[SimulationofSai]

One reason why I wouldn't buy the ebook apart from the price factor is that they are PDF's X| with copying and text to speech turned off. I understand copying disabled, but text to speech? :~ It's probably better buying the paperback and plant a few trees to clear the conscience.

SG Aham Brahmasmi!