Re: e-books pricing (was: Re: a very small quantum entertainment)

From: hal@finney.org
Date: Mon Jul 24 2000 - 10:12:46 MDT


Damien forwards from Steve at Fictionwise:
> The printing costs for
> a physical paper back book are only about $1 out of a list price here in
> the usa of about $8. So by any reasonable logic the price should be about
> 10 percent less for an ebook with the same content. What people are
> paying for is the *content* not much the package.

I didn't realize how small a fraction of a book's price the printing
costs were. People are always complaining about CDs being ripoffs because
sales price is so much higher than manufacturing cost. Sounds like
books are not quite as bad, but still with the manufacturing costs
being a tiny fraction of the final price. It would be interesting to
see a breakout of where the sales dollar goes in the process of creating
a book. I'm sure none of us would be so naive as to suppose that authors'
royalties take the lion's share.

Hal



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