virtualDavis

ˈvər-chə-wəlˈdā-vəs Serial storyteller, poetry pusher, digital doodler, flâneur.
2Mar

Reality Check: Book Publishing in the Digital Age

virtualDavis | Category: Publishing | Comments Off on Reality Check: Book Publishing in the Digital Age
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The Internet tsunami that has swept through the newspaper and magazine industries, transforming the landscape and leaving debris everywhere, has at last arrived at book publishers. According to today’s New York Times, publishers now acknowledge that e-books cost less to produce than the traditional paper models and therefore ought to sell for less. Amazon has been selling them on the Kindle for $9.99, much to the publishers’ dismay. Now several large publishers have agreed with Apple to sell books on the iPad for $12.99 to $14.99. Hoping this line will hold, publishers scold that (as the clearly sympathetic Times puts it) “consumers exaggerate the savings and have developed unrealistic expectations about how low the prices of e-books can go.”

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Book publishing involves many expenses that book buyers may not appreciate, the publishers say. That is indeed true. The average hardcover book, says the Times, sells for $26. Here is just a partial list of where that $26 goes:

  • $2.00 for lunches
  • $0.05 to $7.00 for the book party
  • $1.05 for the author tour
  • $0.65 for seven editors to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair
  • $0.60 for lunches at the Frankfurt Book Fair
  • $1.50 for drinks at the Frankfurt Book Fair
  • $2.00 to cover wild overpayments to 15-minute celebrities or Washington bigshots for books that will never earn back their huge advances but the cost has to be amortized somehow
  • $0.50 for lawyers
  • $0.40 for editors
  • $6.00 for free review copies
  • $17.50 for employee health care
  • $1.60 Whoops! Forgot these lunch receipts from last month. Sorry.

The book industry is one of the most custom-laden and set in its ways. It still can take over a year from the time an author submits a manuscript until the time the book comes out. Even if a manuscript is submitted electronically, it may very well be printed out, edited in pencil with sticky notes, and then keyed back in with new typographical errors. It remains to be seen who has “unrealistic expectations” about life and books in the digital age.

via theatlantic.com

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2Mar

Making the Case for IPad E-Book Prices

virtualDavis | Category: Publishing | Comments Off on Making the Case for IPad E-Book Prices
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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.

Publishers largely agree, which is why in negotiations with Apple, five of the six largest publishers of trade books have said they would price most digital editions of new fiction and nonfiction books from $12.99 to $14.99 on the forthcoming iPad tablet — significantly lower than the average $26 price for a hardcover book.

But publishers also say consumers exaggerate the savings and have developed unrealistic expectations about how low the prices of e-books can go. Yes, they say, printing costs may vanish, but a raft of expenses that apply to all books, like overhead, marketing and royalties, are still in effect.

All of which raises the question: Just how much does it actually cost to produce a printed book versus a digital one?

via New York Times

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