on ebooks and POD and tech
14 Jan 2009 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigouAbout that previous post on ebooks and POD and technological possibilities for the publishing world, a few things of note.
One, there's iTunes new idea for DRM-free files: instead of locking the files, your name & email are encoded into the file when you purchase it. You can still pass it along to anyone you want, as DRM-free -- but if it shows up on a file-sharing page somewhere, a simple crack will reveal your name as the original purchaser of the program. One way or another, it could be traced back to you.
Now, I do have DRM-styled PDF ebooks that are quite annoying for having a lock based on the combination of IP address (registered with Adobe, IIRC) and code -- which, I should note, is a code that's my freaking credit card number. I could really, really do without that. And as someone who would like to be able to transfer the license of an ebook (IOW: to give the book away when I'm done reading), such locking-format makes it impossible. But then, it also makes it impossible to read the book anyway, now that I'm on a completely different installation on a completely different computer and the ebook is convinced I stole the ebook, uh, from myself or something. (No, really. I got two of them unlocked; the other two, never did manage to jump through enough hoops and now, no reading. Lovely!)
If my name & email were encoded in the file, that wouldn't bother me -- because if I give away the file, it would just encourage additional diligence on my part that it's not destined for mass distribution via Mediafire or Rapidshare or whatever else. If ebooks were to become a major player in the publishing world, something like this seems like it'd be a good compromise between DRM-locking, the ease of license-transfer per book ownership/gifts but in pixel-format, and yet also giving copyright owners the means to hold someone accountable. I suppose what would be really nice, then, is some kind of form that transfers licenses, where I say, "when I gave the ebook away, this is a digital signature from the person who received it." Or whatever. But still! An idea.
Meanwhile, in a blog post on Galley Cat, there's what purports to be an explanation of why ebooks cost so much (as much as pbooks, or more). Let's see. Does this NOT add up for anyone else, as well?
On the left is a breakdown (far as I can figure) of this handy explanation. On the right is a breakdown of the numbers I can collect from primarily epublishing companies like Torquere, LiquidSilver, LooseID, and others -- most tend to be in this range. (Note: Samhain books pays a greater % to the author, but also has prices lower, on average, than other publishers, so the actual amount-to-author comes out roughly the same.) Yes, to clarify, these are the cost breakdowns for ebooks, by cost item and by publisher-type.
According to that explanation, here's the breakdown from list price:
38% goes to the bookstore
10% goes to the distributor
15% goes to the author
50% goes to the publisher
1% goes to credit card company
Hello, that adds up to 115%, people -- or 120% if you're a publisher who's making 55% off list price. Someone in that post really sucks at math. I'm not certain 15% goes to the author -- isn't it less? (Authors, you tell me, although I know there's a big swing between % from hardback versus % from paperback; let's stick with paperback as comparison point to keep things roughly equal.)
Everything else I find on the 'net says 15% is a really awesome deal for hardback but not likely unless you're selling over 10K in copies. For paperback, it's more like 8-10%. Doesn't that just beg the question, then, if an author gets 8% from a $7.99 paperback but 15% from the e-version, wouldn't you think there'd be author's beating down the doors to get themselves into e-versions? Hello? Anyone?
E-pub example is 100K novel price averaged between 3 different epublishers. P-pub example is approx 100K (guessing by doing #pages x 325 words/p/pg, sorry) from mainstream publisher of paperback edition.
Also, according to the 'insider': "credit card processors ... take 3-6% of the sales price."
Uhm. It depends entirely upon volume -- which is why bookstores and other retail distribution schemes put this on the largest mover of the goods -- usually the bookstores. The more you sell, the more the credit card company's take drops, because they'll make up for it with sheer volume. American Express told me it'd take 8% to 10% off every single purchase (and I told Amex to take a hike). Visa/Mastercard gave me a contract of 3%, I think it was, and the amount we sold was a pittance compared to the volumes I'd expect through a distributor like Fictionwise with its nearly 57,000 titles.
If they're getting 5% total taken from Visa/Mastercard & Discover, they're getting seriously ripped off, and there's not much I can do to help them. The fact that they include Amex as an option (a trade-off between Amex's higher % costs and the fact that many Amex customers get very demanding about preferring to use it) tells me that they've got to be doing a seriously brisk business. I'd expect their Visa/Mastercard % to be closer to 1%. Possibly even less -- but I didn't even count it anyway: this cost is absorbed by the seller.
NOTE: a comment about purchasing via debit cards. Yes, this is from a bank, but the % taken by the c'card stands. That debit card you have is from a bank that has an affiliation with either Visa or Mastercard (most commonly, though there are others). To a bookstore/retailer, it doesn't really matter whether it's debit or credit; the c'card is still routed through the affiliated c'card company. Where the "debit or credit?" question comes into play is with your bank's charges to you -- a POS (point of sale) on some debit cards can produce usage fees of up to $2 for a single sale.
Banks are not in the business of distributing money automatically as payment, especially in really tiny and everyday increments -- $5 to the gas station, $20 to the grocery store, $25 to Tower Records. So they make up for this burden on them by charging you POS costs, sometimes, and those add up fast and can be really high. The reason retailers want you to say "debit" is because that's the only time the retailer doesn't have to pay the c'card cost, a cost that is absorbed by them anyway and not transferred to you -- it's not like if you say, "I'll pay in cash," that they're going to drop the price by 3% for you.
IOW: if your bank doesn't charge you POS for using debit-as-credit, then from a customer's POV there's no difference in debit or credit usage. If your bank does charge you... then you're far better off insisting on credit every single time.
Okay, back to topic!
However, the table above is through a third-party distributor, not through the e-publisher directly. (Torquere is the only one that spells it out that authors get 35% unless a 3rd party distributor is involved, in which case authors get 25%.)
So here's a price comparison: the ebook vs hardcopy. I tried to keep all examples at about 100K, just so the actual amount of information received (in whatever format) is roughly equal. It used to be that you could get ebooks cheaper directly from the publisher, but nearly all of the recent releases I checked are priced the same, so I wonder if the 3rd party distributors pushed for the publishers to adjust their on-site prices to prevent unfair competition in their distribution agreement.
That last one is NOT an anomaly; I find hardbacks from Ace to Penguin and inbetween following the same trend. If the book is available in hardback for $25, the ebook is $25. Because, of course, an ebook is... I DON'T KNOW. I would have thought, oh, maybe, CHEAPER, but apparently not.
That logic breaks down completely for me: if I buy a hardback copy of Scott Lynch's latest at $28 a pop, and in a year the first printing is done and now it's paperback only and I buy a second copy for $10, I'm paying $18 less and I'm getting a substantially smaller, less heftier, less-fancy, less overall-substantial book. But if the ebook is priced to match the current pbook version, does that mean in a year I could have have bought, for $18 less, the exact same file? What kind of freaking nonsense is that?
So far, I'm sticking with my original reaction: someone (most likely agents) needs to start educating p-publishing companies about the fact that they just need to stay the hell out of epublishing, and leave epublishing to the companies who specialize in it and can do it well and don't have to gouge us readers in the process. Maybe epubs and ppubs could affiliate up and use each other's strengths to offset their own weaknesses, but I'm for that only if I don't get gouged on the ebook version for the cost of a hardback book -- when at the very LEAST with a hardback book, if it sucks, or I get bored, or I just plain want to give it away, I can.
I see no reason at all to assume the risk of nearly $30 for an item I can't even return if it really really sucks. Hello!
NY publishing houses don't ever claim they can make a movie out of your book, and they don't try, because it's not their industry: when are they gonna realize that epublishing is just as alien to them as movies?
One, there's iTunes new idea for DRM-free files: instead of locking the files, your name & email are encoded into the file when you purchase it. You can still pass it along to anyone you want, as DRM-free -- but if it shows up on a file-sharing page somewhere, a simple crack will reveal your name as the original purchaser of the program. One way or another, it could be traced back to you.
Now, I do have DRM-styled PDF ebooks that are quite annoying for having a lock based on the combination of IP address (registered with Adobe, IIRC) and code -- which, I should note, is a code that's my freaking credit card number. I could really, really do without that. And as someone who would like to be able to transfer the license of an ebook (IOW: to give the book away when I'm done reading), such locking-format makes it impossible. But then, it also makes it impossible to read the book anyway, now that I'm on a completely different installation on a completely different computer and the ebook is convinced I stole the ebook, uh, from myself or something. (No, really. I got two of them unlocked; the other two, never did manage to jump through enough hoops and now, no reading. Lovely!)
If my name & email were encoded in the file, that wouldn't bother me -- because if I give away the file, it would just encourage additional diligence on my part that it's not destined for mass distribution via Mediafire or Rapidshare or whatever else. If ebooks were to become a major player in the publishing world, something like this seems like it'd be a good compromise between DRM-locking, the ease of license-transfer per book ownership/gifts but in pixel-format, and yet also giving copyright owners the means to hold someone accountable. I suppose what would be really nice, then, is some kind of form that transfers licenses, where I say, "when I gave the ebook away, this is a digital signature from the person who received it." Or whatever. But still! An idea.
Meanwhile, in a blog post on Galley Cat, there's what purports to be an explanation of why ebooks cost so much (as much as pbooks, or more). Let's see. Does this NOT add up for anyone else, as well?
On the left is a breakdown (far as I can figure) of this handy explanation. On the right is a breakdown of the numbers I can collect from primarily epublishing companies like Torquere, LiquidSilver, LooseID, and others -- most tend to be in this range. (Note: Samhain books pays a greater % to the author, but also has prices lower, on average, than other publishers, so the actual amount-to-author comes out roughly the same.) Yes, to clarify, these are the cost breakdowns for ebooks, by cost item and by publisher-type.
According to that explanation, here's the breakdown from list price:
38% goes to the bookstore
10% goes to the distributor
15% goes to the author
50% goes to the publisher
1% goes to credit card company
Hello, that adds up to 115%, people -- or 120% if you're a publisher who's making 55% off list price. Someone in that post really sucks at math. I'm not certain 15% goes to the author -- isn't it less? (Authors, you tell me, although I know there's a big swing between % from hardback versus % from paperback; let's stick with paperback as comparison point to keep things roughly equal.)
Everything else I find on the 'net says 15% is a really awesome deal for hardback but not likely unless you're selling over 10K in copies. For paperback, it's more like 8-10%. Doesn't that just beg the question, then, if an author gets 8% from a $7.99 paperback but 15% from the e-version, wouldn't you think there'd be author's beating down the doors to get themselves into e-versions? Hello? Anyone?
E-pub example is 100K novel price averaged between 3 different epublishers. P-pub example is approx 100K (guessing by doing #pages x 325 words/p/pg, sorry) from mainstream publisher of paperback edition.
| e-pub % | e-pub $ | p-pub % | p-pub $ | |
| book price | 5.99 | 7.99 | ||
| author amt | 25% | 2.10 | 15% | 1.20 |
| publisher | 45% | 2.40 | 55% | 3.99 |
| distributor | 30% | 1.50 | 30% | 2.40 |
Also, according to the 'insider': "credit card processors ... take 3-6% of the sales price."
Uhm. It depends entirely upon volume -- which is why bookstores and other retail distribution schemes put this on the largest mover of the goods -- usually the bookstores. The more you sell, the more the credit card company's take drops, because they'll make up for it with sheer volume. American Express told me it'd take 8% to 10% off every single purchase (and I told Amex to take a hike). Visa/Mastercard gave me a contract of 3%, I think it was, and the amount we sold was a pittance compared to the volumes I'd expect through a distributor like Fictionwise with its nearly 57,000 titles.
If they're getting 5% total taken from Visa/Mastercard & Discover, they're getting seriously ripped off, and there's not much I can do to help them. The fact that they include Amex as an option (a trade-off between Amex's higher % costs and the fact that many Amex customers get very demanding about preferring to use it) tells me that they've got to be doing a seriously brisk business. I'd expect their Visa/Mastercard % to be closer to 1%. Possibly even less -- but I didn't even count it anyway: this cost is absorbed by the seller.
NOTE: a comment about purchasing via debit cards. Yes, this is from a bank, but the % taken by the c'card stands. That debit card you have is from a bank that has an affiliation with either Visa or Mastercard (most commonly, though there are others). To a bookstore/retailer, it doesn't really matter whether it's debit or credit; the c'card is still routed through the affiliated c'card company. Where the "debit or credit?" question comes into play is with your bank's charges to you -- a POS (point of sale) on some debit cards can produce usage fees of up to $2 for a single sale.
Banks are not in the business of distributing money automatically as payment, especially in really tiny and everyday increments -- $5 to the gas station, $20 to the grocery store, $25 to Tower Records. So they make up for this burden on them by charging you POS costs, sometimes, and those add up fast and can be really high. The reason retailers want you to say "debit" is because that's the only time the retailer doesn't have to pay the c'card cost, a cost that is absorbed by them anyway and not transferred to you -- it's not like if you say, "I'll pay in cash," that they're going to drop the price by 3% for you.
IOW: if your bank doesn't charge you POS for using debit-as-credit, then from a customer's POV there's no difference in debit or credit usage. If your bank does charge you... then you're far better off insisting on credit every single time.
Okay, back to topic!
However, the table above is through a third-party distributor, not through the e-publisher directly. (Torquere is the only one that spells it out that authors get 35% unless a 3rd party distributor is involved, in which case authors get 25%.)
So here's a price comparison: the ebook vs hardcopy. I tried to keep all examples at about 100K, just so the actual amount of information received (in whatever format) is roughly equal. It used to be that you could get ebooks cheaper directly from the publisher, but nearly all of the recent releases I checked are priced the same, so I wonder if the 3rd party distributors pushed for the publishers to adjust their on-site prices to prevent unfair competition in their distribution agreement.
| publisher | ebook | pbook | format |
| Loose ID | 6.99 | 14.99 | trade |
| Torquere | 5.95 | 13.95 | trade |
| Ace | 7.99 | 7.99 | mass |
| Whiskey Press | 5.99 | 15.95 | trade |
| Random House | 27.50 | 27.50 | hardback |
That last one is NOT an anomaly; I find hardbacks from Ace to Penguin and inbetween following the same trend. If the book is available in hardback for $25, the ebook is $25. Because, of course, an ebook is... I DON'T KNOW. I would have thought, oh, maybe, CHEAPER, but apparently not.
That logic breaks down completely for me: if I buy a hardback copy of Scott Lynch's latest at $28 a pop, and in a year the first printing is done and now it's paperback only and I buy a second copy for $10, I'm paying $18 less and I'm getting a substantially smaller, less heftier, less-fancy, less overall-substantial book. But if the ebook is priced to match the current pbook version, does that mean in a year I could have have bought, for $18 less, the exact same file? What kind of freaking nonsense is that?
So far, I'm sticking with my original reaction: someone (most likely agents) needs to start educating p-publishing companies about the fact that they just need to stay the hell out of epublishing, and leave epublishing to the companies who specialize in it and can do it well and don't have to gouge us readers in the process. Maybe epubs and ppubs could affiliate up and use each other's strengths to offset their own weaknesses, but I'm for that only if I don't get gouged on the ebook version for the cost of a hardback book -- when at the very LEAST with a hardback book, if it sucks, or I get bored, or I just plain want to give it away, I can.
I see no reason at all to assume the risk of nearly $30 for an item I can't even return if it really really sucks. Hello!
NY publishing houses don't ever claim they can make a movie out of your book, and they don't try, because it's not their industry: when are they gonna realize that epublishing is just as alien to them as movies?
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no subject
Date: 15 Jan 2009 06:01 am (UTC)With enough effort, you can get that company's budget giving 120%...
Yeah, it's an SNL skit. Can't remember it all.
Someone in that post really sucks at math. I'm not certain 15% goes to the author -- isn't it less? (Authors, you tell me, although I know there's a big swing between % from hardback versus % from paperback; let's stick with paperback as comparison point to keep things roughly equal.)
I'm not published yet, but from what I've heard from an author (I can't remember if it was Stephen King or Orson Scott Card) is to start asking for 15%, though 12% is fine.
Of course, this could be more accurate if I could remember the source.
no subject
Date: 15 Jan 2009 06:12 am (UTC)Agents spend hours figuring this stuff out... so I don't have to, right?
Ebooks are, from everything I see, a much flatter level. Granted, they don't reward you if you sell a bazillion copies (as if that's gonna happen) by paying you more, but neither do they penalize you overly for not being awesome enough to warrant a hardback.
In some ways, ebooks are just much more egalitarian, though I wonder if the reason for that is more to do with the fact that many of them seem to have been started up by publishing outsiders who were 'net-savvy and of the "everyone jump right on in" internet mindset of the early years. Who knows.
no subject
Date: 15 Jan 2009 10:35 am (UTC)As I understand it, this is dead simple to understand -- if you look at it from the correct angle, which is that of a corporate vice-president in charge of publishing dead trees.
Ebook publishing arms were set up as effectively parallel imprints within publishing groups, taking up the ebook rights to books their book arms had bought, and turning them into ebooks. This meant they had a parallel management hierarchy to the traditional publishing arm, and were in theory semi-independent.
The execs in charge of the p-book arms took one look at this situation and shat a brick: "what's to stop the e-book publisher from cannibalizing our market by selling the product for $2.50?" they asked.
And to answer the question: they went upstairs to the boardroom (as high as they could get in what is essentially a multinational media corporation with its fingers into newspapers, magazines, TV stations, and dog toys) and screamed "you gotta help us! Our scheming rivals in division Q are going to destroy our market and drop your profits in the shitter unless you put a floor under their pricing!"
And lo, verily, it is decreed at most publishers that the ebook arm can't publish and sell books for less than 80% of the price of the cheapest paper edition of the same book. Because the folks making the decision wouldn't know an ebook from an elephant unless one sat on their head but they understand "cannibalize our market" real good. (Or think they do.)
(Yes, there are exceptions. They're slowly getting less rare.)
no subject
Date: 16 Jan 2009 03:36 am (UTC)But you put it much more eloquently.
no subject
Date: 16 Jan 2009 03:58 am (UTC)Alternately, "If I find I really really still want to read it... I'll check it out from the library."
no subject
Date: 16 Jan 2009 01:42 pm (UTC)I used to spend a few hundred dollars a year on new books - the bookstores I went to had "new paperback" sections, and I'd drop buy every week and buy a book or two back when they were $5 or $6 each. Now that they're $8 or $9 each, I buy a half dozen a year.
no subject
Date: 16 Jan 2009 03:54 am (UTC)Which is really only convincing if you also believe that 99% of your customers are total morons incapable of comprehending that $27 may be a fair market price for hardback but a total and absolute rip-off for a bunch of freaking pixels.
Then again, in a vast many industries, it seems many corporate hacks base entire careers upon the premise that their customers are total morons.