stevenehrbar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenehrbar) wrote2010-02-04 10:34 pm
stevenehrbar) wrote2010-02-04 10:34 pm
So, is Macmillan losing money on Dominion?
Dominion, by Fred Saberhagen, is a direct-to-paperback release from Macmillan, under the Tor imprint. The price is $6.99. Serpent Moon by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp , is another direct-to-paperback release from Tor, for $6.99. Both were released February 3rd, 2010.
That sure looks like proof that Macmillan can, in fact, currently edit, typeset, and otherwise prepare a book, then sell it for a profit at a retail price of $6.99. Which would pretty strongly suggest that they could edit, typeset, and otherwise prepare an ebook, and then sell it at a profit for a retail price of $6.99. It's not like an ebook has any of the printing, warehousing, and distributing costs of the paperback; surely it isn't more expensive to make than a paperback?
Maybe, of course, the author royalty on the book is razor-thin. So we then could, say, add an additional $3.00 to the price, to represent a compensation to the author equivalent to a 12%-of-retail-price royalty on a $25 hardcover. That would bring us to a price of $9.99 for the ebook as high enough to make a profit for Macmillan and definitely reward the author.
Interestingly, ten bucks is the same price Amazon was using as a standard, and that Macmillan is saying was way, way too low for an ebook.
Oh, well. I'm sure on the $12.99 ebook sales they're paying authors a royalty in excess of $3 a copy, right? Right?
That sure looks like proof that Macmillan can, in fact, currently edit, typeset, and otherwise prepare a book, then sell it for a profit at a retail price of $6.99. Which would pretty strongly suggest that they could edit, typeset, and otherwise prepare an ebook, and then sell it at a profit for a retail price of $6.99. It's not like an ebook has any of the printing, warehousing, and distributing costs of the paperback; surely it isn't more expensive to make than a paperback?
Maybe, of course, the author royalty on the book is razor-thin. So we then could, say, add an additional $3.00 to the price, to represent a compensation to the author equivalent to a 12%-of-retail-price royalty on a $25 hardcover. That would bring us to a price of $9.99 for the ebook as high enough to make a profit for Macmillan and definitely reward the author.
Interestingly, ten bucks is the same price Amazon was using as a standard, and that Macmillan is saying was way, way too low for an ebook.
Oh, well. I'm sure on the $12.99 ebook sales they're paying authors a royalty in excess of $3 a copy, right? Right?
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They can afford to take on brand new authors where it's too risky to release them immediately in hardcover but it's worth giving a paperback release a try because of the higher margins on hardcover books.
You did read the actual releases from Macmillan, right? The ones that discussed windowing? And that they were explicitly willing to offer books at no-more-than-9.99 if Amazon would accept said windowing, to avoid cannibalizing hardcover sales? You know. The hardcover sales that let them take a risk on putting out those direct-to-paperback novels. A large percentage of which never actually sell through sufficiently to cover what it cost to put them out, much less make a profit.
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