Are Ebooks Really That Much Cheaper?

With all the Amazon and MacMillan drama that has been going on, I keep seeing posts about people boycotting ebooks to protest against the prices and that just really depresses me. Boycotting books doesn’t do anything to the publisher. They could care less in my opinion. They have a ton of other titles that they will get their money from and the number of people who actually do any boycotting really don’t make that big of a dent in their overhead.

HOWEVER, those boycotters do make a dent in an authors income and that is the part that hurts the most. I mean, if you think about it, a publisher will recoup their loses in some way. By not buying a certain book, you hurt the book sales and that’s it. That doesn’t tell the publisher that “oh we were wrong to price it at that”, but more like “oh they didn’t like the story, let’s not order more”. The only person that really gets hurt by boycotts in the end is the author. And if you really want to expand that, the reader. I mean, let’s say that Jane Doe has this amazing series and her readers always want more, but then a boycott occurs and that author’s sales go down. The publisher is going to turn around and say we don’t want any more and than the author is out of an income and us readers are out of a great story.

So, I really dislike the idea of boycotting anything relating to books. If someone is going to boycott, then I hope they have read John Scalzi’s article on the issue. His method makes a lot more sense to me.

So where did all this come from? Well, I got to thinking, are ebooks really that much cheaper to produce than a print novel? I don’t know if I totally believe that. I mean, yeah, the actual creation of the ebook may be cheaper, but it takes a lot more than that to develop the book. Regardless of what format the book ultimately gets sold in, the development process is all the same – the author still needs an advance, marketing still needs to occur, editors still need to be employed. There are a ton of people that work on a book before any of us even hear about it. So up to this point, where is an ebook cheaper?

The only place I can see where this illusion could occur is in the actual process of making that beautiful thing we love to read. There’s a lot that goes into making a print book. There’s ink and paper, machines to put it all together, tons of people ensuring everything works right and I’m sure I’m missing a lot more steps. As for an ebook, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if there was only one lonely geek behind a wall of monitors putting the thing together. After all, it’s not hard to make a PDF copy of a Word document – it’s just one little button. I do it every day. Granted, I’m sure there’s more of a process in the publishing world, but can it really be that much more difficult?

So yeah, the creation may be cheaper, but there is a lot that goes on before the actual product is developed and that’s essentially all a book is – a product. There are people who work in the background to ensure that product is fantastic and they kind of want to be paid for it.

In the end, it all comes down to the most basic of economic principles – where there is a demand, there will be a supply. You take away the demand and the supply will disappear too. So yes, the idea that digital should be cheaper is a nice theory, but in the end, it’s not a practical one.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

11 Comments

  1. Who knows actual break down of cost, but that isn’t really a concern of the reader. The problem is about perception of value. Ebooks are worth less than a hardcopy (whether in paperback or hardcover). Print copies you can trade, resell, lend, transfer places. None of those things are possible with ebooks therefore they inherently have less value. You give me an ebook with those same valuable assets and I am happy to pay the same price as print.

  2. oh and I would highly recommend this post by J.A. Konrath about the print model and publishing – –http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/01/selling-paper.html

    He has a lot of really fabulous posts on his blog tho :)

  3. That may be true, but do you trade/resell books you want to keep? The only books I buy are the ones I plan on keeping and it would be really nice not to have to rebuy them. I’ve had to purchase multiple books again because I’ve worn them out. So in essence, print books are not that cheap to begin with, regardless of format.

    And if you loan out books, that just makes them wear down faster. Granted, that doesn’t stop me from loaning them out, but that just means I’ll have to buy another copy sooner. Yes, that’s great for the author and that’s why I’m willing to do it, but if they get the same amount when I buy an ebook vs 2 print copies, why should they wait for my copy to get totaled before they get that little extra?

  4. i own a B&N Nook and this reader has the capability of lending to another nook or BN reader (iphone,pc,mac) and you can also archive the books in case you want to read at a later date.
    i have probably at least 200 paperback books and with the economy the way it is, book right now are hard to get rid of, so i am glad for my ereader as they don’t take up space and it holds 5o thousand books.
    i do find the ebooks cheaper than paperbooks or hardback, plus i don’t have to try to find time to get to the bookstore. although i do find myself wanting to have both copies of the same book, especially if it is from a fav author, like kresley cole, jeannie frost of JR ward and others.
    IMO, i just want the authors to be taken care of, it takes time and hardwork to create a book and as long as the author gets the credit,

    i am probably just rambling, but, IMO, it all comes down to $$$ and politics and in the end the little people will be the ones to suffer.

  5. I recently read a post by an author that said they make more $ off ebooks. But then they have to worry about piracy. I saw Rachel Caine hunting down some ebay piraters and shutting them down.

  6. I agree that people should be writing to publishers not boycotting books. I think some of the boycott issues are not for price, but delays. For instance, Kim Harrison’s Black Magic Sanction. The hard cover release date was February 23. Originally the Kindle/ebook release date was the same. I pre-ordered for that date. I didn’t even look at the price. I didn’t care. I wanted the book right away no matter what. Then the e-book release got postponed to the mass-market paperback release date in April. Yes, the price was lower, but that’s wasn’t the point. Who is to say that people wouldn’t pay the higher price until April? I know I would have. It would never have made me go out and buy the hardcover though. I read all my books on my iphone, and I will never go back to paper books. I find the convenience of having my book with me at all times and it being lightweight, always open, backlit, and has adjustable fonts unbeatable. I would have paid $15 for the new release on February 23 rather than wait till April and save the money. But if I had to, I would have waited. LUCKILY, she came out with it as an app on itunes, so I don’t have to wait :)

  7. Jackie, you are soooooo right.

    Publishers don’t care. It is all a matter of money and they always look at the ROI.

    Ebooks are good if you have the patience and are willing to look at small print. However, there is nothing like a warm fire and a suitable light to read by as you get lost in the mind of the author and what they were thinking when they threw those words on the page.

    http://www.trularin.wordpress.com

  8. I don’t boycott the book. I buy the print version as opposed to the ebook version.

    However. I do think it is cheaper to produce an ebook. The book is already in an electronic format before it goes to print. Also, the publisher is saving on paper and whatever it takes to make the cover of either a hardback or paperback. I think its unnecessary to charge the same if not MORE than a print book. I’ve seen new releases in mmpb charging 9.99 vs the 7.99 print. And they discount the print on release day at amazon, but not the kindle version because the publisher won’t let them.

  9. Jackie I buy all my books because I read on my kindle… there is no other way to get them but to buy them. So yeah, I would love to be able to trade away, lend, or resell the ones I won’t read again (tho I rarely re-read anyway). Even if I didn’t have a kindle, i would likely be buying all my books as the library has really long waits.

    The nook does allow lending but only if the publisher agrees and only once in the lifetime of the book. Silly restrictions.

    All my point was, give me a book without DRM and silly rules and its worth what a print book is, until then, no its not and I probably won’t pay more than $10 for it. It sucks, but luckily most of my favorite books are not in hardcover and fall under the $10 cap anyway.

  10. I won’t boycott it only hurts the writers I love. I just don’t understand when an ebook costs more than its print counterpart. I think it is ridiculous. I also disagree on the price point. I don’t see why it can’t be slightly cheaper even if its just cents… its hard for people to understand why electronic cost as much as print…. who is getting the cost of the paper and production in the ebook pay structure? Nevertheless, I would pay the same and be okay if the darn books were not in proprietary formats. I want to be able to read a book on any of the devices I own (and I own multiple). I bought the book I should be able to read it on what I want.

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