Comments on: Digital distribution isn't free

Distribution of digital content may be cheaper than traditional print publishing. But free? Nope.

[Michael too]

If you want some facts (numbers) on these economics, head on over to baen.com (IMHO, some of the top innovators in the e-book world). Anyway, go to the link for their free library. Then go to the "Prime Palver" writings - basically they are editorial writings from Eric Flint. Eric is a successful writer and the librarian of the free library.

Anyway, Eric has a handful of these editorials, and in one of them (either Prime Palver 6 or 7???) he discusses and shares the economics of paper publishing. Although Eric is a big promoter of e-books, he points out that the cost of physically printing books is not as high as many believe.

The source of this writing tends to lend the editorial a bit of creditability. After all, Eric is not a p-book apologist. I might suspect him of trying to justify higher e-book prices, but that is clearly not the case since Baen's e-book prices are the most reasonable I have found on the net. Surely, you can't blame the FREE library with being over priced.

Michael

[ghaff]

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look. For another data point, even print on demand books have a cost that can get down to about 50% typical retail prices. I would assume high volume print runs cost considerably less.

[3dissue]

To add another point to hit home the point that digital distribution isnt free.

While there are some products like 3DIssue.com that allow you to create your own digital publications in-house, the majority of publishers who post digital editions of their print publications are using digital magazine production companies to convert their print mags / newspapers into digital editions.

I think there will be a shift shortly that will reduce the cost of digital distribution to the digital reader, signigficantly as publishers embrace targeted dynamic advertising in their digital editions. Where the cost of distribution and perhaps even the cost of sale is passed to the advertiser rather than the digital consumer.

[ghaff]

Michael's earlier comment referred me over to Eric Flint at the Baen Books free library and one of his pieces makes essentially this point. With digital publishing you still have essentially all the other costs associated with publishing a book except for the actual physical distribution. You can only start to cut those (and even then only to a limited degree) if the economics support dropping the paper version entirely.

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