"Free" E-books aren't free...

[alfreda89]

A real, nuts and bolts post about how e-piracy can hurt writers -- can make the difference between selling another book, and no more books at all.

(We're using this icon because e-pirates are boobs, not because there is adult content connected to the post... ;^) )

AND -- Someone in publishing explains why E-books cost so #$%@ much. When it's cheaper than this? Basically, either free labor and glossing over some of the steps, or the author/publisher is losing money on the book.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I'm not buying his reasoning - but that may be ignorance on my part.

"acquisitions, royalties" - two different columns for "paying for the book we're reselling"

"Digital preparation" and "Quality assurance" are different terms for "copyediting, cover and interior design, page composition"



The thing he undersells is "Digital distribution" costs, which is not from the PUBLISHER in most cases, it's from the reseller. Amazon/B&N, etc run the servers, not the publisher (except in the case of Baen, as far as I know.) Very few PUBLISHERS run digital distribution. Now if publishers are netting 70% then those that are distributing are already paying for it out of their 30%

I will agree that there are a LOT of fixed cost if you do print or not - I'm just very leery of his descriptions on costs.