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The terrible dilemma of cost e-book giants struggle

According to literary agent Nathan Bransford, the problem of the cost of an electronic book faces a terrible dilemma : its really not at all correspond to what we imagine the public ...


Myth and reality ... a theme not unknown for book lovers, is now inviting debate about the cost of the eBook.

Indeed, the author of the article gives the following example: in a classic book that costs $ 25, the distribution of costs is made in this way (we're talking about an exercise rather theoretical course):

• $ 12.5 for the distributor and the bookseller (publishers usually sell the book about half its final sale price, but are not responsible for the distribution of books to retail outlets)
• $ 2.5 to shared between the author and his agent (this is obviously very relative, but it may take an average of one author receives 10% of the final price and shares it with his agent, usually with a distribution of 85/15)
• $ 10 for the editor, which are divided into:
• $ 2 for costs of printing and binding
• $ 2 for the logistical costs (shipping, storage, stock management, etc ...)
• $ 6 for other costs of publishing

says Bransford that if we wish, sell their works in electronic form, the authors preserve their income levels, the only costs that can cut are then the $ 4 cost of printing and binding costs, giving us for the same book in electronic format, a value of $ 17, so divided:

• $ 8.5 for the distributor or bookseller (applying 50%)
• $ 2.5 a share between the author and his agent (preserving the current level of remuneration)
• $ 6 for the publishing, not of course include printing costs or logistical

We see this exercise is not so easy to reduce the cost of a book, which is very electronic. However, obviously the public opinion, paying $ 17 for a book that is worth $ 25 in paper, not a business. Here is the dilemma between myth (the public) that says that the production of an e-book costs nothing, and reality (the editors) that can not sustain these low prices, often dictated by distributors (such as Amazon and lately, Apple). Although this is a bit more complex than it appears, for example, Amazon sells electronic books under $ 10 even paying more for them to publishers ... now that's played ... although it is clear that you end up playing against the latter.


But Bransford's speech seems a little weak in 2 aspects: first, he forgets that distribution costs should also be quasi-deleted (which costs up an Internet e-book now?), So that could lower the rate of 50% applicable to traditional book distribution, and second is likely to have to ask the authors with an absolute effort (keeping rates similar to current), effort justified by the fact that while is cheaper to sell their works, is likely to sell more.

Anyway, this problem is quite interesting and publishers / distributors that you can understand and resolve the best way will probably be the largest of tomorrow ...