{"id":3,"date":"2011-10-21T15:27:50","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T15:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/?p=3"},"modified":"2011-10-27T12:46:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-27T12:46:00","slug":"whats-up-with-ebooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/?p=3","title":{"rendered":"What’s up with Ebooks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I realise that this next is the same level of question as the “Why do foods with LESS fat cost MORE to make”, but I don’t think the answer is the same.<\/p>\n

I was looking at Google ebooks and the book on there are generally the same price as paperbacks.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

A hardback book costs, say, \u00a320. The paperback version costs around \u00a38. <\/p>\n

I assume this difference in price is because the production process for the Hardback costs more, as does the nice shiny card-stuff they use for the eponymous covers.
\n(Plus a bit extra on top, because any excuse to add to the price is a good one).<\/p>\n

I assume a paperback costs as much as it does because you have to pay the following things:<\/p>\n

\u2022\tWriter
\n\u2022\tAgent
\n\u2022\tPublisher
\n\u2022\tPress
\n\u2022\tCost of Printing
\n\u2022\tDistribution
\n\u2022\tMark up for bookstores
\nI don\u2019t know anything about book publishing, but these categories seem reasonable to me.<\/p>\n

So why would the same book cost \u00a38 on Google Ebooks?
\nThe very nature of the e-book would seem to remove the Publisher, cost of printing, distribution, and book shop mark-up from the equation entirely.
\nSo what costs might it add?
\n\u2022\tServer space.
\n\u2022\tProgrammers
\n\u2022\tGraphic artist
\n\u2022\tDistribution programme
\nBut these things are done en masse. Unlike a print run, which might have a cost of say, 50p per book, you instead have to have a personal page for the book, which might have cost you \u00a330 in man-hours in design, server space and implementation; but this can be applied to all of your books. Or, at least, a lot of them. And just retrospectively; it\u2019s to all the future books too. Apply the cost of this one page across all its uses and the price dwindles more.<\/p>\n

So, my question again, is WHY THE HELL DOES AN EBOOK COST THE SAME AS A PAPERBACK.<\/p>\n

(In related topics, DRM for ebooks is awful, and why does everything end in 99p in every context?)<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
here is a drawing I did of a google elf making an ebook from a real book. Because you're special.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I realise that this next is the same level of question as the “Why do foods with LESS fat cost MORE to make”, but I don’t think the answer is the same. I was looking at Google ebooks and the book on there are generally the same price as paperbacks. Why? A hardback book costs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1],"tags":[5,15,14,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jemontague.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}