Same here. But on rare occasions when I do avail the buy-one-get-one-free offer, the second book invariably goes unread.
Also does anyone know why these 50% discount offers are limited to ebooks only?
Also does anyone know why these 50% discount offers are limited to ebooks only?
Comparing the prices of a book on oreilly[1] and bookdepository.co.uk[2] seems to suggest a print book has about 50%(just a guess) margin while the ebooks sells for almost 100% margin once it is produced. So knocking the prices of ebook down to 50% to drive sales would make sense. Thanks again,
[1]http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596529321.do
[2]http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Programming-Collective-Intel... I assumed that these guys buy the book for 20 dollars and sell for 20 euros and make 25-30% profit. Great site btw with free worldwide shipping although delivery takes anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks.
O'Reilly makes more on e-book sales directly through their on-line store then they do on print. However, every e-book they sell via Amazon, their margins are very, very different. Here's a rough guide for a $40 book:
* O'Reilly E-Book Online Store: Approx 99% margin or $39.60
* O'Reilly Store selling print book (bulk print discount assumed): 95% margin or $38.00
* Amazon selling print book (bulk print discount assumed): Approx 90% margin or $36.00
* Amazon selling kindle e-book: 35% margin or $14.00 (minus the Amazon processing fee so it's actually worse)
Odds are the bulk of O'Reilly e-book sales are probably done on Amazon, where the margin is AWFUL. The constant huge sales by O'Reilly are a way to recoup the painful margins insisted upon by Amazon.
Yeah, Amazon makes boatloads off of kindle book sales.
Is that really the kind of margins they operate at or is that a typo?
But yes, the average print costs for a single-color book per unit are in the 2-4 dollar range (that is, manufacturing alone, no design, marketing, editing).
And how would it be possible for Amazon to "keep their lights on" selling physical books at 40% off list price, if they pay O'Reilly $36 for a $40 book? Amazon buys from O'Reilly and most other pubs at 60% off, non-returnable. So the math for the publishers' take from Amazon on physical books looks like this:
[list price] * [.4] - [print costs / overhead] - [author royalty]