[tzs]

> Contrary to popular belief, physical production is NOT the single largest part of a book's cost. In fact, even before ebooks, the cost of paper and ink and shipping was actually a pretty negligible part of the final cost.

Yup. For a typical hardback, the physical costs (printing, shipping, and storing) are about $3.25. Here's an article from a few years ago that looked at the money side of paper books and ebooks: [1]

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/business/media/01ebooks.ht...

[philfrasty]

Given that you print a vast amount of copies and it is all black-and-white on thin paper. Go color (e.g. cookbooks) with 200g+ paper and you can easily double or triple that price.

[revelation]

That's a massive massive part of a $15 book, then? That's about the same proportion as the parts cost for a typical electronics product.