Why are e-books more expensive than hard copies?
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting an iPad or a Kindle, since I read a lot and would love to have an electronic library rather than a hard copy one that fills up every nook and cranny in my house.
But looking at some of the prices on amazon (I don’t even know how to access Apple’s bookstore yet), I notice most of the books I searched were $2.00 *more* than the hard copy. Why? Aren’t they saving themselves a ton of money on printing fees, delivery fees, etc.? Why aren’t any of those savings being passed along to the customers?
Brownies, you are completely wrong. The publisher does NOT own the idea (intellectual property rights) of the book. That is owned by the author and is guaranteed by the COPYRIGHT. The publisher must pay a royalty to the author for the right to print or publish the author’s work, usually around 15% of the list price of the book. In the case of e-books, the author will only get 10% of the list price of the e-book. The publisher and the author enter into a contact for a predetermined amount of time for the publisher’s right to print of publish the author’s work and the author may terminate that contract whenever the publisher fails to meet any of the conditions of the contract. the publisher may also terminate the contract for the same reasons. At the end of the determined period, the author may end the relationship with that publisher and sign a contract with another publisher or may sign another contract with the original publisher. However at NO time does the ownership of the intellectual property become the property of the publisher.
Brownies, you too are wrong. An Author will submit his manuscript to the publisher and many times that submission will be in electronic form as a pdf file. The Kindle reader is able to actually read the pdf file, directly and this saves the publisher several steps in publishing. The publisher does not have to print, type set, maintain printing presses and equipment not pay the people to operate that equipment. there is no financial outlay for stock, warehousing, shipping, or even a large publishing facility and it essentially can be done all out of one or two large offices. No one needs to be hired by the publisher to keep the files in good working order. All the publisher needs to do is to keep the master file on a non server computer and install a copy of that file onto the kindle server. In fact, kindle servers are periodically wiped and all the files reinstalled on a daily basis as a matter of routine just to eliminate those files from becoming corrupted through constant use, hacking has nothing to do with it. To prevent hacking all it takes is a decent set of firewall protocols to be installed on the server systems, something that EVERY public set of servers does as a matter of routine security, anyway. No EXTRA people are hired for any of that for they already exist. The explanation by Tamara is closest to what actually happens with the pricing of hard copy books versus e-books.
Brightest Blessings,
Raji the Green Witch
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