Right before the holidays, a reader asked why the paperback version is so much more expensive than the e-book for my titles. Unfortunately, it comes down to production and transportation costs.
For an e-book, downloading a few MBs of data is relatively inexpensive for me as the publisher. I pay the retailer a percentage of the cover price to host my book on their commercial website (and that fee covers their computers and personnel) and an additional few cents to transmit the book to you when you buy it.
For a paper book, there're more hands in the pot. The printer charges X amount to print the book, which is generally based on the number of pages. They have to pay for the paper, the ink, the machines, and their employees. Then there's the distributor. They've got to pay for the trucks that carry the books, the fuel for the trucks, the warehouses where the books are stored, and their own employees. And finally the retailer in a brick and mortar store has to pay for rent, utilities, equipment, merchandise, and their own employees. All those little costs add up.
In the final accounting, Writer Me makes less money on a paperback than I do an e-book. And that's okay because I know what it's like to want to have a paper copy of the things you read over and over again. (Though in my case, I re-read my own books because I forgot to record something in the series bible and have to go look it up. LOL)
In the end, it doesn't matter which format you prefer. As long as you're happy with the story I wrote, then I'm happy.
In other news, I'll start posting chapters of Sacrificed next Wednesday. That novel will start 2018 with a bang!
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