Librius
"By 2000, Librius expects that it will cost less than $1 to make and distribute a title, including all corporate overhead, storage and download costs."
- Don Bottoms, Librius President
Notes:
Images & info obtained from http://www.librius.com/ on 9/30/98.
�Mr. Bottoms believes that e-books will save publishers so much money that they can afford to stimulate the market with 30% discounts and still double their profits. He notes that publishers have an operating margin of only about 10% on most fiction and nonfiction, about one-third of the margin for professional textbooks.
��Publishers of popular fiction and nonfiction have the lowest margins, and, therefore, the highest motivation to work with us,� he says.
�For a typical $30 book, the retailer gets about $15 and another $6 goes to production expenses, meaning a direct e-book sale could save a publisher more than two-thirds of the book's retail price. Electronic distribution could also eliminate another costly factor, the high rate of returns for hardback books. But some industry analysts say publishers fear alienating bookstores with big discounts on downloaded books, and at any rate are so starved for profits they will try to keep all the savings for themselves.
��Pass along savings to the consumer?� asks Peter Appert, a publishing analyst for BT Alex. Brown. �No chance.�
�But the Internet has a way of nurturing global comparison shopping, which leads to withering price competition. Over time, publishers will be tempted to bypass retailers or reach some sort of accommodation with them on sharing the savings, and to increase sales with lower prices.�