Last week, we railed against publishers and their resistance to e-books by going heavy with the sarcasm and using just enough Econ 101 to sound dangerous. This week, we post an article from Mokoto Rich at the New York Times that delves into the actual economics of producing and profiting from a single book. Rich reports that publishers are sensitive to the criticism that they are not lowering prices enough for e-books. They defend themselves by noting that printing and shipping are not the biggest costs of producing a book. While we remain skeptical about the logic publishers are using – and highly suspicious of their institutional resistance to innovation – we’re happy to showcase someone else’s reportage of the facts for you to ponder. As Rich noted:
In the emerging world of e-books, many consumers assume it is only logical that publishers are saving vast amounts by not having to print or distribute paper books, leaving room to pass along those savings to their customers.
