Cost of books - hard copy and Ebook

Ejmarathe

I always wonder why prices of books are so high in India. Though i wish to buy books, cost involved is too much. Even popular ebooks are also priced in range of 100 to 200 ! I have publised my father's religious book in Marathi on Adya Sankaracharya. I can firmly state that , even if you don't compromise on quality, 600 pages books cost, for 1000 copies, is in between 80 to 100 Rs. If you add sellers commission of 30%, you can sell book in the range of 250 to 300 and even earn decent profit. If you print more copies, cost will also reduce. Even big publishers are selling books in the range of 450 to 600 Rs !
Printed books of popular wtitters, released some years ago and received well by public should be made available in ebook format below 50 Rs.


What say ?

Mousetrap

I think most popular books are in the 250 - 300 range. This goes down even further during sales. I guess it is the publisher's goal to make the most of a book's popularity to earn as much as possible during the initial few months post publication.

AS for e-books, I think the prices can definitely be brought down. It should sell at about 1/4th the cost of a print version.

Sin

I agree. And I have also noticed that sometimes ebooks are also priced so high that I tend to lose interest in buying those. Pricing of ebooks should be bare minimal in my opinion.

jitukawade

IAgree

leesam3

But then if the pricing of ebooks will be brought down bare minimal then people will always start to prefer ebooks to printed books.

jayyogeswarusa

True. At least ebook should be less expensive

rahula1234

Ebook should be priced less and may be they can release ebook after certain time period so that they can earn their money in printed formats

cabrito

I too agree that ebooks should be released after hard copy release of books earns a substantial profit.