Dragaera

Question for Mr. Brust

Sun Mar 12 08:27:38 PST 2006

>From: <mtiller at ntlworld.com>
>To: Dragaera List <dragaera at dragaera.info>
>Subject: Re: Re: Question for Mr. Brust
>Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 8:34:01 +0000
> >
> > From: "Peter H. Granzeau" <pgranzeau at cox.net>
> > Date: 2006/03/12 Sun AM 06:15:32 GMT
> > To: skzb at dreamcafe.com
> > CC: Dragaera List <dragaera at dragaera.info>
> > Subject: Re: Question for Mr. Brust
> >
> > At 08:02 PM 3/4/2006, skzb wrote:
> > >It actually had nothing whatever to do with me.  I still don't know
> > >how it works, if it works, or if I getting anything from it.  I assume 
>I do.
> >
> > I don't know what Torscriptions will be like, but Jim Baen has said
> > in Baen's Bar that he pays about double the royalty for an e-copy he
> > sells than for the paper copy.  Since his production costs for
> > e-copies are so much less than they would be for the paper (as
> > opposed to editing costs), I would guess that is probably correct,
> > even though the cost of a Webscription is greatly discounted from the
> > cost of paper books for the same set of works.
>
>Not only production costs, but 100% of the sale price goes to the Publisher 
>whereas with dead tree versions, the standard markup for the store selling 
>the book is over 100%.
>
>Mark
>

Actually, standard (or conventional non-discounting) independent bookstores 
attempt to stay in business with a gross profit margin of less than 45% per 
title, out of which they have to pay rent, utilities, wages, taxes, 
insurance, and misc. other costs. Then they also have to compete with large 
chainstores which can purchase in larger quantities at lower prices and 
offer customers discounted prices, not to mention on-line businesses like 
Amazon.com and others....

Also, what you call a "standard markup" is a publishers preset price for the 
book, a price which bookstores cannot charge a higher price than.

Don't worry, real soon, independently owned bookstores will be a thing of 
the past. I live in a city of nearly a quarter million with 3 colleges and 
an university, not to mention numerous international corporations. We have 
one independent bookstore left. We also have a Waldenbooks (struggling) and 
a Barnes & Noble. (That does not include on campus stores selling textbooks)