Comments on: A Message from Macmillan CEO John Sargent http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/a-message-from-macmillan-ceo-john-sargent/ An information blog from Macmillan executives Tue, 17 Aug 2010 18:36:42 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Michael http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/a-message-from-macmillan-ceo-john-sargent/comment-page-1/#comment-1348 Michael Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:15:29 +0000 http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/?p=5#comment-1348 Interesting response David. Interesting response David.

]]> By: Kolumne: Ramellis Bücherrad wird gerade neu erfunden » Learning Waves http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/a-message-from-macmillan-ceo-john-sargent/comment-page-1/#comment-274 Kolumne: Ramellis Bücherrad wird gerade neu erfunden » Learning Waves Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:44:15 +0000 http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/?p=5#comment-274 [...] Nach einem Bericht der Financial Times vom 8. Feb. 2010 "A page is turned" und einem persönlichen Blogpost machte sich J. Sargent, CEO des mächtigen Verlagshauses Mcmillan am 28. Januar – einen Tag [...] [...] Nach einem Bericht der Financial Times vom 8. Feb. 2010 “A page is turned” und einem persönlichen Blogpost machte sich J. Sargent, CEO des mächtigen Verlagshauses Mcmillan am 28. Januar – einen Tag [...]

]]> By: david alexander http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/a-message-from-macmillan-ceo-john-sargent/comment-page-1/#comment-132 david alexander Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:08:26 +0000 http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/?p=5#comment-132 Dear Mr. Sargent, I recently completed a cost/income analysis of ebook editions vs. physical book editions in connection with an article I have submitted for publication. The bottom line on the numbers I came up with is that on a hardcover edition selling 25,000 copies a major publisher could be expected to receive approximately $5 after costs of printing, shipping, distribution, authors' royalties and warehousing and without deducting the lost interest on capital expended to pay advance royalties, advance printing and shipping costs and other items of up-front costs over the time of payment and the sale revenue is received from the publisher's customers. Since ebooks have a much more immediate payment mechanism and no printing, shipping, etc. costs, many of these imputed interest costs would go away and I would estimate them at about $.10 additional cost per hardcover book sold. This $5 per HC sold figure to publisher is also before other publisher costs which would be expected to be the similar or less for an ebook and a physical book - editing, cover art, company overhead, etc. Maybe my numbers are not correct. They had to be estimated. But if they are in the ballpark, a publisher could receive $5 from, say Amazon, for itself, $3.50 from Amazon for author's royalty and leave Amazon with $1.45 ($9.95 total) and make the same amount per ebook sold that it would make per hardcover edition sold. By the way, an ebook edition retailing at $5.95 should make the publisher about 170% of what the publisher would receive from an $8 paperback edition, assuming a 1/3 - 1/3 - 1/3 allocation between the publisher, the author and the web seller. The author's royalty would increase from about $.64 (at 100K sales volume) to $1.98 or about a three hundred percent increase for the author from the lower-priced ebook sale vs. the $8 paperback sale. Would you or someone from Macmillan be willing/interested in taking a look at this article to confirm or correct my numbers or the assumptions I have used or to offer your critique or other input? Thank you. David Alexander 2600 El Camino Real Suite 506 Palo Alto, CA 94306 650-857-9233 Dear Mr. Sargent,

I recently completed a cost/income analysis of ebook editions vs. physical book editions in connection with an article I have submitted for publication.

The bottom line on the numbers I came up with is that on a hardcover edition selling 25,000 copies a major publisher could be expected to receive approximately $5 after costs of printing, shipping, distribution, authors’ royalties and warehousing and without deducting the lost interest on capital expended to pay advance royalties, advance printing and shipping costs and other items of up-front costs over the time of payment and the sale revenue is received from the publisher’s customers.

Since ebooks have a much more immediate payment mechanism and no printing, shipping, etc. costs, many of these imputed interest costs would go away and I would estimate them at about $.10 additional cost per hardcover book sold.

This $5 per HC sold figure to publisher is also before other publisher costs which would be expected to be the similar or less for an ebook and a physical book – editing, cover art, company overhead, etc.

Maybe my numbers are not correct. They had to be estimated. But if they are in the ballpark, a publisher could receive $5 from, say Amazon, for itself, $3.50 from Amazon for author’s royalty and leave Amazon with $1.45 ($9.95 total) and make the same amount per ebook sold that it would make per hardcover edition sold.

By the way, an ebook edition retailing at $5.95 should make the publisher about 170% of what the publisher would receive from an $8 paperback edition, assuming a 1/3 – 1/3 – 1/3 allocation between the publisher, the author and the web seller. The author’s royalty would increase from about $.64 (at 100K sales volume) to $1.98 or about a three hundred percent increase for the author from the lower-priced ebook sale vs. the $8 paperback sale.

Would you or someone from Macmillan be willing/interested in taking a look at this article to confirm or correct my numbers or the assumptions I have used or to offer your critique or other input?

Thank you.

David Alexander
2600 El Camino Real
Suite 506
Palo Alto, CA 94306
650-857-9233

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