Cost of Publishing

Why are books so expensive? Implicit in that question, is why are printed books so expensive when e-books can be had for 99 cents? There is a large number of factors that go into the cost of a book, and it may surprise many people to learn that most of these factors are shared between printed and e-books. The thought that e-books are much less expensive to produce isn’t exactly correct.

One of the biggest costs to any industry, and publishing is no exception, is labor. The old saying time is money sounds cliché nowadays, but it isn’t. A book may represent thousands of hours of labor, from the various stages of editing, to page composition, proofreading, and cover design. Printed and e-books alike go through these stages. In fact, it isn’t until the book is sent for output that it becomes either a printed or e-book. Also shared is the marketing cost. While the distribution differs slightly between print and digital editions, there is still a cost of distribution with both formats.

Where the cost differs greatly between print and digital editions is in creating the final output. Paper is expensive, as is press make-ready. Depending on the print run and the page count, the paper and printing costs may exceed the labor cost. However, for most novels, labor is still the highest cost. It is typically only for the print runs of 20, 30, 40 thousand or more for which the paper and printing costs exceed the labor cost. For a typical 300-page novel and a print run of 5,000 units, labor is most likely going to be the greater cost.

E-books, on the other hand, do not have a paper- or press-related cost. The “printing.” cost for an e-book is the conversion time, which can be literally seconds, and the storage space required to host the e-book file. This is the main reason that e-books are so much lower in price than a printed book. However, don’t be fooled into thinking an e-book costs less than 99 cents to produce. There is also a marketing ploy at play in the pricing of an e-book. In many cases, that 99 cent price for an e-book does not even cover the cost of creating the e-book. For example, if it takes 1,000 hours to produce an e-book, and the average hourly rate is $50, the publisher would have to sell 50,000 e-books just to break even. Most books will never sell anywhere near that number of copies. Why sell an e-book at such a low price, a price that is below cost? The hope is that you, the reader, will either purchase a print edition, become a loyal follower of the publisher or author, tell your family and friends about the publisher or author, or all of these. In effect, the publisher is betting for future sales.

Tin Whiskers Publisher is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). IBPA’s mission is “to lead and serve the independent publishing community by providing advocacy, education, and tools for success.” IBPA is a not-for-profit membership organization serving and leading the independent publishing community. Founded in 1983, it is the largest publishing trade organization in the United States. IBPA members pledge to uphold the organization’s code of ethics.