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You miss my point entirely. When calculating the cost to manufacture a book, you don't do it as a percentage of the list price. In fact, for a $40 best seller, I'm betting it's the inverse, as the volume for those go up, the printing price drops down to the order of $1.50 - $2. What I was trying to emphasize, is that unlike most goods and products, that have their final cost as a markup to the physical cost, Books are more like software - the actual manufacturing cost doesn't play much of a role in the list price. So, to say that "Average cost of manufacturing a book is 10% of list" is to imply that there is a relationship between list price and manufacturing cost of a book. Whether, in the end, it turns out be 10% or 15% or 5% as an "average" is mostly irrelevant to the core of our discussion, which is "eBook Pricing versus Physical Book Pricing". This is _particularly_ important with regards to the conversation at hand, as the Publishers are mostly focused on the final retail price being charged to the customer, and probably aren't that excited about whether it comes from an eBook or Hardcover. This is counter-intuitive to most people who thing _OF COURSE_ a publisher would rather get $10 for an eBook (With DRM, non copyable, non-lendable, close to zero manufacturing /shipping costs, fewer returns) versus a HardCover book, and all the costs associated with it. What I'm trying to highlight is that, at the end of the day, the List Price <-> Manufacturing Cost relationship is not as straightforward as "Printing Cost is 10% of list price" |