I’ve wanted for some time to create a simple infographic of where a book’s cover price goes, and the Observer published a nice one in their Book of Books a few months ago. The figures made sense, so I’ve created a similar one here, in colour.
Guess who gets basically a tithe?
I think this illustration serves a number of purposes, not least to illustrate the mark-up taken by the retailers. There’s some justification for this by bricks-and-mortar stores, with huge overheads, but I’m yet to hear a decent one for internet retailers, who don’t have shop rents to pay - their motivation, of course, is simply to undercut the high street. Publishers are giving away huge sums in their failure to compete on direct sales - and they’re going to struggle to justify high ebook prices too.
Go see the illustration. Great work.
Now what dinosaur print publishers better consider: What if Apple comes along and applies their App Store revenue model to eBooks? Suddenly authors can get seventy-percent of the sale price.
So dinosaur print publishers: Why the fuck will writers need or even want you?
Previously-published authors understand the need for editing. We can get that without you.
And promotion? Don't make us laugh. This is now The Internet Age. Nearly everyone has a blog or website. And for those writers who don't do it themselves, there's always a likely fan to come along to do even a MySpace page.
Hey, print publishers! What's that underneath your feet? Quicksand, baby.
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