I would expect e-books to be considerably cheaper than printed books, since there are reduced distribution and production costs. Yet the retail price often doesn’t match those savings versus an e-book. I would hope that the authors royalties would reflect some of the savings in production costs.
In: Economics
Most of the cost/value of a book is the intellectual property contained in the book, not the physical paper and cardboard. It’s the author’s time writing and researching the book, the editors time editing the book, the designers who do the layout and cover art, it’s the marketing behind the book. all of those are the same whether sold in print or e-book format. For a $20 book, maybe $2 of the cost is the paper its printed on and the cover its bound in.
And most importantly, the value of the content is the same to the reader whether in paper or electronic form, whether that’s entertainment reading a work of fiction, knowledge in a non-fiction book, etc.
Latest Answers