The expensive part of making books is not the paper. My wife is an independent author and between editing, typesetting, cover design, etc. she spent about $1500 to publish each of her books.
While she could price her books at $1, that would present her with a few problems.
Firstly, people often value things based on what they’ve paid for them, so pricing your book too low makes people assume it is of poor quality.
Secondly, having positive reviews is extremely important for indie authors because the Almighty Algorithm will reward you or punish you based on the book’s rating. Other indie authors she has talked to have seen a noticable decline in their book’s rating after Amazon put it on sale and a bunch of people who might not have otherwise read it started buying copies. If you’ve ever worked retail or food service, you probably know that bargain hunters are often the people who are least reasonable and hardest to please. If the book is too cheap, you may attract an audience that harms its reputation.
Finally, trying to sell 2000+ copies of a book is pretty daunting for small authors and that’s about what it would take to break even at $1 per copy.
Could big publishers and well known authors sell books for a buck? Probably. But for the majority of authors who aren’t making their living by writing and only sell a few hundred copies ever, that’s not really realistic.
Those are reasonable statements, but it doesn’t explain why the digital equivalents cost MORE than their physical counterparts. Especially considering there’s no manufacturing, distribution, shipping, storage, etc… Sure, servers and bandwidth cost money, but nowhere near what an entire physical distribution chain costs. It’s pennies on the dollar.
That assumes the work of creating or collating the information has been fully amortized. The cost of information should tend toward zero, but it should start high enough to fairly reward its creators and those who made it visible
I can’t think of a recent time where I’ve seen an eBook that cost more than the paperback but I haven’t been looking specifically. In my experience, the eBook is usually a buck or two cheaper than the print version.
I have lots of books in paper. I have dozens electronically
The paper ones are good. I can lend them to friends, smell them, have them looking good on a shelf, can read while I’m doing something else on my phone
The electronic ones are with me. I can read them when I find myself surprisingly with nothing better to do.
Printing a book on paper and distributing physical books isn’t the majority of the cost of a book. Should ebooks be cheaper? Yes should they cost a fraction of a paper book? No since most of the cost in publishing does not depend on the medium of distribution. Most of the cost is basically the salaries of the people they have to pay to get the book onto the market (the writer, editor, marketing, etc) it doesn’t matter if it’s digital or physical these costs stay the same. Publishers basically lose money with the majority of the books they publish and make most of their money with the few hits they release each year.
eBooks and digital rentals should cost a fraction of their physical counterparts, but instead they cost more because of
greedconvenience.The expensive part of making books is not the paper. My wife is an independent author and between editing, typesetting, cover design, etc. she spent about $1500 to publish each of her books.
While she could price her books at $1, that would present her with a few problems.
Firstly, people often value things based on what they’ve paid for them, so pricing your book too low makes people assume it is of poor quality.
Secondly, having positive reviews is extremely important for indie authors because the Almighty Algorithm will reward you or punish you based on the book’s rating. Other indie authors she has talked to have seen a noticable decline in their book’s rating after Amazon put it on sale and a bunch of people who might not have otherwise read it started buying copies. If you’ve ever worked retail or food service, you probably know that bargain hunters are often the people who are least reasonable and hardest to please. If the book is too cheap, you may attract an audience that harms its reputation.
Finally, trying to sell 2000+ copies of a book is pretty daunting for small authors and that’s about what it would take to break even at $1 per copy.
Could big publishers and well known authors sell books for a buck? Probably. But for the majority of authors who aren’t making their living by writing and only sell a few hundred copies ever, that’s not really realistic.
Those are reasonable statements, but it doesn’t explain why the digital equivalents cost MORE than their physical counterparts. Especially considering there’s no manufacturing, distribution, shipping, storage, etc… Sure, servers and bandwidth cost money, but nowhere near what an entire physical distribution chain costs. It’s pennies on the dollar.
Especially since the marginal cost of information goods is zero
That assumes the work of creating or collating the information has been fully amortized. The cost of information should tend toward zero, but it should start high enough to fairly reward its creators and those who made it visible
I can’t think of a recent time where I’ve seen an eBook that cost more than the paperback but I haven’t been looking specifically. In my experience, the eBook is usually a buck or two cheaper than the print version.
I’m open to being wrong about this.
All the books I’ve seen in Amazon are like this
I don’t buy at Amazon, usually when I do is Google or Kobo, and the prices are similar to Amazons sometimes slightly cheaper.
No, they cost more because of Steve Jobs.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/how-apple-led-an-e-book-price-conspiracy-in-the-judges-words/
This is your reminder that that man was utter trash.
I don’t need reminders but I love thorough paper trails.
I also read manuals if you’re wondering. No sarcasm.
Manuals are cool though.
Epub and PDF files are free though. Just gotta look harder.
Everything digital is free if you look hard enough, and are comfortable with piracy, but I’m talking about retail transactions.
Everything retail is free if you want it hard enough and are comfortable with theft.
Or permanently borrowing like that old lady in Titanic
Ebooks are less convenient because once you buy and read it you’re stuck with it and can’t resell.
Books can be had second hand for dirt cheap, too. For ebook you’re paying full price.
True, but I can’t get a paperback at midnight, while laying in bed, and have it in my hands 10 seconds later.
I have lots of books in paper. I have dozens electronically
The paper ones are good. I can lend them to friends, smell them, have them looking good on a shelf, can read while I’m doing something else on my phone
The electronic ones are with me. I can read them when I find myself surprisingly with nothing better to do.
Printing a book on paper and distributing physical books isn’t the majority of the cost of a book. Should ebooks be cheaper? Yes should they cost a fraction of a paper book? No since most of the cost in publishing does not depend on the medium of distribution. Most of the cost is basically the salaries of the people they have to pay to get the book onto the market (the writer, editor, marketing, etc) it doesn’t matter if it’s digital or physical these costs stay the same. Publishers basically lose money with the majority of the books they publish and make most of their money with the few hits they release each year.
Great argument for piracy, thanks