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Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book

March 1, 2010 - 9:46am — Blake

Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book
In the emerging world of e-books, many consumers assume it is only logical that publishers are saving vast amounts by not having to print or distribute paper books, leaving room to pass along those savings to their customers. But publishers also say consumers exaggerate the savings and have developed unrealistic expectations about how low the prices of e-books can go.

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March 1, 2010 - 12:19pm — Walt

Consistent with what I've been saying for 15+ years

That is: the portion of the price of a print book that has anything to do with it being a print book--typesetting, printing, materials, warehousing, shipping--is rarely more than 14-15% (or one/seventh).

That was true 15 years ago. It's true today. It's likely to be true tomorrow. But it's one of those messages (like "most library blogs aren't going to get many comments") that people really, truly don't want to hear.

Still, good to have another in a long line of confirmations (including quite a few off-the-cuff ones from publishers)...

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March 1, 2010 - 8:42pm — Bibliofuture

NY Times article on cost of ebooks may not be accurate

NY Times article on cost of ebooks may not be accurate
Story at Teleread.org

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March 1, 2010 - 10:08pm — Bibliofuture

Line from the article: If

Line from the article:
If e-book sales start to replace some hardcover sales, the publishers say, they will still have many of the fixed costs associated with print editions, like warehouse space, but they will be spread among fewer print copies.

Response: That is why there needs to be new publishers that only deal in ebooks so they are not carrying around the infrastructure of a previous format. These new publishers can also do print books is they use POD printing when customers want a paper copy of the book.

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