Further, e-books *ARE* worth less than physical books for the very fact that they are not physical. Once you read it, what do you do with it? You can’t sell it. You can’t give it to a friend.. You can’t donate it to a library. You can either let it clog your hard drive or you can delete it. Of course nobody in their right mind is going to pay full price for something that doesn’t come with full benefits, nor should they.

To clarify, Macmillian is Seven Seas’ distributor, not publisher. Seven Seas is still in charge of all of our own titles. Hence, we started releasing a number of our OEL titles last year as ebooks on the Kindle at a $3.50 price point.

Licensed manga from Japan would likely have to cost more due to the extra licensing costs and approvals that would be required from the Japanese publishers, though. (That’s if the Japanese even allowed a book to have an ebook version.)

A lot of people don’t realize just how the “pie” of a book cost is distributed–I do, because I used to work at a bookstore.

A lot of people don’t appreciate the power of a good editor. I complain about this all the time, especially in journalism. (I’d also argue that some editors aren’t really allowed to edit, and that’s how we get book bloat.)

On the other hand, I don’t think even those of us who understand the challenges of publishing are willing to pay over a certain price point for anything digital. I’m getting more digital-oriented, but at the end of the day, I like a physical object to read and will pay accordingly. The digital copy has to be less–at least for now.

Second, movies and music have *not* done better. They report higher revenue every year, but revenue =/= profit. Movies are selling less tickets at higher prices, and DVD sales are practically on the verge of collapse while Blu-ray has not picked up the slack. Music industry profits are down 50%. What all this has translated into is less risk being taken on original properties, and more budget funneled into “sure-fire blockbusters,” i.e. sequels for movies, shallow teen flavors of the week for music. Some may see that as a blessing, of course; the most interesting music are usually found online these days. Yet no individual has the resources and infrastructure to really compete with a commercial release, at least not yet.

There are all kinds of conflicting interests pulling on traditional publishers. That shouldn’t be forgotten in any such discussion about virtual content. As to whether publishers are still needed in this day and age, that’s a separate quandary entirely. But until an individual can make as much money as JK Rowling self-publishing on the net, and online can pay all the salaries of all the professional writers in the world that exist, it might be too soon to consider. The old system is still here, because it still pays best.

And Lori, here’s my issue with e-books: Publishers can come up with all sorts of reasons why they charge what they do, but if people perceive an e-book as worth less than a paper book—and people do, for very valid reasons—then they won’t be willing to pay as much.

They could work to ensure their continued survival by making themselves actually useful but they’re so used to being able to do anything they want to do and nobody having a choice in the matter that they freight train will have run them down long before they hear it coming.