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Comment by clarky07 | Hacker News Reader

>I've never bought a Kindle because paying almost the same price for the Kindle version of a book vs. the paperback cost is ridiculous.

You don't understand the economics of publishing. The paperback, and the hardcover for that matter cost almost nothing to produce. You are paying for the information. Perhaps the ebook should be a dollar cheaper.

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For anyone interested in the average profit margins of books publishers and some what the percentage of the paper, print, and binding for a book is of the total cost, the Art & Science of Book Publishing by Herbert S. Jr Bailey (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0821409700/ref=wms_ohs_prod...) is a good book. Print on Demand and ebooks have changed some aspects, but it is still largely true that, for most books, marketing, overhead, sales, etc. are a lot of the cost of producing a book. Even with ebooks, this is still the case. Illuminating stuff.

I have no idea who downvoted this comment, but it is very true. The cost of a book is the cost of making and marketing it. Paper is really cheap. Obviously it is more expensive than bits, but not significantly.

In Economics, nobody cares about facts. The ebook is "less" than a physical book, therefore it should cost less.

It's not just the direct priniting costs there is also the risk discount as publishers often destroy a significant number of unsold books.

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