What do you think the relative costs of distributing 1,000 [one thousand] ebooks vs. distributing 1,000 paperbacks are? We're talking after all production costs, the book has been typeset and rendered to a print/ebook file on a publishers computer system.
Once set up what's the additional cost involved for the publisher in shipping the next 10,000,000 ebook files vs the next 10,000,000 paperbacks. Just the act of transferring the book from the computer system to the ebook reader or the owners bookcase.
I personally distributed > 50,000 computer files this month so far for a marginal cost of < £1. Getting 50,000 DL flyers printed would cost me about £1000 without distribution. It's not entirely comparable but I think it gives the flavour of the savings in production costs available to publishers.
Once set up what's the additional cost involved for the publisher in shipping the next 10,000,000 ebook files vs the next 10,000,000 paperbacks. Just the act of transferring the book from the computer system to the ebook reader or the owners bookcase.
I personally distributed > 50,000 computer files this month so far for a marginal cost of < £1. Getting 50,000 DL flyers printed would cost me about £1000 without distribution. It's not entirely comparable but I think it gives the flavour of the savings in production costs available to publishers.