It's the very best kind of wrong...

Jay Lake on Amazon v. Macmillan

February 2nd, 2010

Jay Lake has published an open letter to fans of eBooks, particularly the Kindle, about Macmillan’s dispute with Amazon over the cost of eBooks. It’s a good read, so you should do so now. But the high points have convinced me that Macmillan is right:

  • The physical material of a book is less than 10% of its total cost. That means eBooks are actually not that much less expensive to produce than hardbacks.
  • The publishing industry, as a whole, is in dire financial straights. The big publishing houses simply cannot afford to take a large cut in revenues and still remain viable.
  • If the big publishing houses do not remain viable, we don’t get to read good books.
  • Macmillan not only wants to charge more for new, popular titles, they also want to charge less for back catalog items, a move which Amazon is also resisting.

    • Posted in: Computers, Pop Culture, Writing

    1 Comment »

    1 Comment »

    1. Comment by rich — February 3, 2010 @ 2:21 am | Permalink

      The tree’s want to weigh in on these profound thoughts, “we love ebooks” they all agreed…

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