Production Costs of Books

OK, so it is on the Kindle blog, but it does cover some of the inputs into the production costs of books. Of course, many of these just don’t go away when the book goes digital. It is worth a read:
Book Cost Analysis – Cost of Physical Book Publishing
It’s a little defensive. We’ve been throug this before. I remember the old days (the 80’s) when librarians would tell me that online newspapers should cost no more than a quarter a day since that’s what the print cost. I recall helping to put most case law online (the 90’s) and spending millions of dollars where librarians would say that this should be free since they already had bought the print. I remember when they said that advertising online was taboo. I recall people saying that they already bought their music on vinyl, tape or CD, why pay for it again. Have you bought a DVD or streaming media replacement for a VHS or Beta tape? Plus ca change . . . plus c’est le meme chose.
My, how times have changed, and haven’t. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how fast. What will the video, bok, magazine, newspaper, videogame, or song, of the future look like.
Place your bets today. It’s your library’s future.
Stephen