Gizmodo: How Much It Actually Costs to Publish an Ebook vs. a Real Book

Katelyn · 03-01-2010, 03:14 PM

I didn't see this posted here yet. Interesting feedback below the article.

Elfwreck · 03-01-2010, 03:31 PM

The table of costs is fascinating:

So, how does Baen stay in business? They must be going bankrupt. Or only making pennies per book. Which would put them close to going bankrupt, right? (And does anyone really believe publishers pay more than 3/4 the marketing cost of a hardcover on each of their ebooks?)

Dulin's Books · 03-01-2010, 03:48 PM

There's no cost involved in storing and delivering an ebook?

Anyway the Original NYT article that Gizmodo is quoting is covered in this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=78

Elfwreck · 03-01-2010, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

There's no cost involved in storing and delivering an ebook?

I think they're lumping those costs under "Bookseller." (And since I suspect cost of server space/bandwidth used per book is less than $.01, calling it zero isn't unreasonable.)

DawnFalcon · 03-01-2010, 03:59 PM

A per-sale model really doesn't display the realities. It's a mixture of fixed and per-sale costs..a large percentage of fixed cost is for printing books that get returned. Also, the cost for ebook "design, typesetting, copysetting" is far too high even on their model.

(It's also amusing that they show by those figures even at half the cover price, ebooks are more profitable than the cash-cow of hardbacks!)

lilac_jive · 03-01-2010, 04:08 PM

I think we're all forgetting the extra cost of medication for the bigwigs in publishing to deal with all the change that comes with ebooks. That can't come cheap.

Dulin's Books · 03-01-2010, 04:08 PM

its not a break down of "costs" really as much as its a break down of how the price you pay gets distributed. For an ebook priced at 12.99 the Retailer gets 3.90(by the way the retailer pays a couple of fees from that, drm/deliery, so doesn't see the whole 3.90) the Author gets 3.25 and the Publisher gets 5.84. It doesn't actually say how much it cost the publisher to publish the book and put it on the overdrive etc servers.

rhadin · 03-01-2010, 04:20 PM

One of the things I don't get from the breakdown that was in the New York Times article has to do with Design, Typesetting, Copyediting. As I do editing and typesetting for both p and e, I do not see any difference in the cost; my fees run the same. Perhaps the difference is that there is no "design" for ebooks?

Also, all of these costs are spread over a whole print run in the case of pbooks. Absent the print run, I'm not sure how costs are spread over ebooks.

Lots of explanatory questions remain with this breakdown.

Daithi · 03-01-2010, 04:30 PM

The Hardcover price is also missing the fact that hardcovers are heavily discounted, and the bookseller's cut is nowhere near $13 but closer to $3 or $4 (and sometimes big best sellers are sold as loss leaders).

Baen has a great business model. They have embraced ebooks in a big way, but they also stay in business by cutting out the middleman and selling direct to the consumer, so they're getting both the publishers cut and the retailers cut.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 03-01-2010, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhadin

One of the things I don't get from the breakdown that was in the New York Times article has to do with Design, Typesetting, Copyediting. As I do editing and typesetting for both p and e, I do not see any difference in the cost; my fees run the same. Perhaps the difference is that there is no "design" for ebooks?

Sure there is "design" for e-books: Covers and layout are design (and if the e-book is being prepared for multiple formats, it sometimes requires multiple designs). The figures quoted don't make much sense to me, either... they seem almost arbitrary.

Dulin's Books · 03-01-2010, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhadin

One of the things I don't get from the breakdown that was in the New York Times article has to do with Design, Typesetting, Copyediting.

*snip*

Lots of explanatory questions remain with this breakdown.

I was wondering about that. thanks for your input. I agree many questions remain unexplored.

DawnFalcon · 03-01-2010, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daithi

they're getting both the publishers cut and the retailers cut.

Not quite true. Webrights Inc. who run Webscriptions are a separate company.

From here:

"Webscriptions is Arnold Bailey's company. He has a contract with Baen to provide web services to Baen, to provide the production process for webscriptions, to take the money for webscriptions and pays baen their cut of the take. Arnold keeps a percentage, which I know, but don't think I'm authorized to share, off the top of the webscriptions sales. In exchange for that, he runs the bar, runs and develops Baen's other web sites, and runs the free library stuff.""

Elfwreck · 03-01-2010, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhadin

As I do editing and typesetting for both p and e, I do not see any difference in the cost; my fees run the same. Perhaps the difference is that there is no "design" for ebooks?

I suspect there's no "typesetting" for ebooks; they don't arrange how much fits on a page for .mobi or .epub, and there's no kerning/leading/orphan control.

I want to know what they're basing the rest of that number on--how many books are assumed in the print run, that it's $.50 each for the copyediting & layout of a book?

Print & ship costs can be per book: print 1000 books, and it's $3250 for print & shipping; print 1500, and it's $4875. Obviously, there'll be a lower limit, but they can claim any standard print run costs that much.

But copyediting isn't a per-unit cost, and it's not a percent-of-sale cost like the author's cut. And neither is marketing. I'd like to know what they're basing those numbers on. Ebooks don't cost $.50 each to edit; they have an up-front editing cost that's hoping to be spread out over expected sales--which numbers they aren't telling us.

dmaul1114 · 03-01-2010, 05:40 PM

Nice to have something that shows that publishers aren't making money hand over fist from reduced costs on e-books.

People tend to grossly overestimate the cost of printing and shipping paper books. Stuff is cheap when you're doing 10,000s to millions of copies etc.

DawnFalcon · 03-01-2010, 05:42 PM

Oh? Again, profits are higher on a $13 ebook per that chart than in a $26 hardback. And it's before returns!

03-01-2010, 03:14 PM	#1
Katelyn Addict Posts: 225 Karma: 342 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Indiana Device: Pocketbook 360, Iphone 3g, Sony 505, REB1200, GEB1150	Gizmodo: How Much It Actually Costs to Publish an Ebook vs. a Real Book I didn't see this posted here yet. Interesting feedback below the article.

03-01-2010, 03:31 PM	#2
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,185 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	The table of costs is fascinating: So, how does Baen stay in business? They must be going bankrupt. Or only making pennies per book. Which would put them close to going bankrupt, right? (And does anyone really believe publishers pay more than 3/4 the marketing cost of a hardcover on each of their ebooks?) Attached Thumbnails

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03-01-2010, 03:48 PM	#3
Dulin's Books Wizard Posts: 2,806 Karma: 13500000 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Portland, OR Device: Boox PB360 etc etc etc	There's no cost involved in storing and delivering an ebook? Anyway the Original NYT article that Gizmodo is quoting is covered in this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=78

03-01-2010, 03:59 PM	#5
DawnFalcon Banned Posts: 2,094 Karma: 2682 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: N/A	A per-sale model really doesn't display the realities. It's a mixture of fixed and per-sale costs..a large percentage of fixed cost is for printing books that get returned. Also, the cost for ebook "design, typesetting, copysetting" is far too high even on their model. (It's also amusing that they show by those figures even at half the cover price, ebooks are more profitable than the cash-cow of hardbacks!)

03-01-2010, 04:08 PM	#6
lilac_jive Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,870 Karma: 27376 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Device: PRS-505	I think we're all forgetting the extra cost of medication for the bigwigs in publishing to deal with all the change that comes with ebooks. That can't come cheap.

03-01-2010, 04:20 PM	#8
rhadin Literacy = Understanding Posts: 4,833 Karma: 59674358 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: The World of Books Device: Nook, Nook Tablet	One of the things I don't get from the breakdown that was in the New York Times article has to do with Design, Typesetting, Copyediting. As I do editing and typesetting for both p and e, I do not see any difference in the cost; my fees run the same. Perhaps the difference is that there is no "design" for ebooks? Also, all of these costs are spread over a whole print run in the case of pbooks. Absent the print run, I'm not sure how costs are spread over ebooks. Lots of explanatory questions remain with this breakdown.

03-01-2010, 04:30 PM	#9
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	The Hardcover price is also missing the fact that hardcovers are heavily discounted, and the bookseller's cut is nowhere near $13 but closer to $3 or $4 (and sometimes big best sellers are sold as loss leaders). Baen has a great business model. They have embraced ebooks in a big way, but they also stay in business by cutting out the middleman and selling direct to the consumer, so they're getting both the publishers cut and the retailers cut.

03-01-2010, 05:40 PM	#14
dmaul1114 Wizard Posts: 2,300 Karma: 1121709 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Amazon Kindle 1	Nice to have something that shows that publishers aren't making money hand over fist from reduced costs on e-books. People tend to grossly overestimate the cost of printing and shipping paper books. Stuff is cheap when you're doing 10,000s to millions of copies etc.

03-01-2010, 05:42 PM	#15
DawnFalcon Banned Posts: 2,094 Karma: 2682 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: N/A	Oh? Again, profits are higher on a $13 ebook per that chart than in a $26 hardback. And it's before returns!

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