The Business of E-Books

I'm back with another article from the New York Times, this one about how much it costs to produce a hard-cover book as opposed to an e-book. Surprisingly, there's not much difference in profit, though author royalties may differ. But if profit margins become too thin, then publishers can't justify taking the risk of publishing new authors, especially since most books aren't profitable. This article suggests that we don't want to switch over to e-books too quickly. Personally, I don't have an e-book reader yet; they're too pricey for me right now. Instead, I buy lots of paperbacks. The more books we writers buy, the more likely it is that publishers can afford to publish us!