LSI e-books

Has anyone published e-books through Lightning Source?

I know that when I publish print books through them, I need to give 55%
wholesale discount if I want them carried by Ingram.

But what with e-books? I've talked to LSI, and they don't want to give out
much information - they say that they work with Amazon, Powells.com and
Elibron.com, and they mentioned that they wouldn't recommend setting the
discount below the 30%, that some retailers might not pick the e-books with
short discount, and that standard trade wholesale discount is 55%.

Does anyone know more about this - what is the exact minimum wholesale
discount retailers look for, and what discounts do they give? I know that
Amazon, for example, doesn't want to talk about its discount policy, but in
practice, they have same discount for all LSI print books.

I wouldn't like any retailer to have bigger discount than me; or, ideally,
I'd like my e-books sold with no discounts. (I doubt discount would
stimulate any buyers, no mater how big it was, when e-book costs just few
bucks.)

Domchi

Domchi

--
Ouroboros Publishing - http://www.ouroboros.hr
Antispam: to reply, remove extra monkey from reply-to address.

In article <pli360dj4rqkoahi20v2bo56eledj690d8.TakeThisOut@4ax.com>,
Domagoj Klepac <no_spam_sent.2.domchi.TakeThisOut@spamgourmet.com> wrote:

 > Has anyone published e-books through Lightning Source?
 >
 > I know that when I publish print books through them, I need to give 55%
 > wholesale discount if I want them carried by Ingram.
 >
 > But what with e-books? I've talked to LSI, and they don't want to give out
 > much information - they say that they work with Amazon, Powells.com and
 > Elibron.com, and they mentioned that they wouldn't recommend setting the
 > discount below the 30%, that some retailers might not pick the e-books with
 > short discount, and that standard trade wholesale discount is 55%.
 >
 > Does anyone know more about this - what is the exact minimum wholesale
 > discount retailers look for, and what discounts do they give? I know that
 > Amazon, for example, doesn't want to talk about its discount policy, but in
 > practice, they have same discount for all LSI print books.
 >
 > I wouldn't like any retailer to have bigger discount than me; or, ideally,
 > I'd like my e-books sold with no discounts. (I doubt discount would
 > stimulate any buyers, no mater how big it was, when e-book costs just few
 > bucks.)
 >
 > Domchi
 >
 > Domchi

typical breakdown of discounts:

List price of (physical) book = 100%

40% to retailer
15% to wholesaler (Ingram, Baker & Taylor, possibly others)
10 to 15% to distributor (if one is used).
balance to publisher.

So, from the publisher's viewpoint, the discounts read:

55% to wholesaler
65 or 70% to a distributer

When in comes to e-books, those in the distribution chain want to
continue these normal discounts -- the publisher (usually) has reduced
the price of a e-book to reflect the lower costs associated with it.
(Publisher doesn't have to pay for printing and paper -- cost of
shipping is significantly less (there is some cost to an Internet
connection).

While wholesalers and retailers do not need to use much storage space
for an e-book, there are still much of the same selling costs involved.

If you mean a "print on demand" book -- then the same set of discounts
apply. Just because Lightning Source prints the book, the same set of
overhead costs are associated with the distribution channel -- even if a
"POD" book is less expensive to handle through the system, they're
aren't such a significant portion of the volune to make it worthwhile
for distributors/wholesalers/retailers to reduce margins. In the POD
example, the higher cost of production gets absorbed by the publisher
(and often makes the book uneconomic to sell).

Dan Poynter had been going around the U.S. talking about his "PQN"
(Print Quantity Needed) model. Here, very short production runs of books
are produced using digital printing equipment -- but only 200-500 copies
are printed at any one time. Here, the publisher pays slightly more for
printing, but saves in storage costs and in "opportunity cost."
(Opportunity cost is the return on investment you could get with money
that might otherwise have been tied up in inventory for a traditional
offset press production run.)

To make the PQN model a bit more attractive, it's possible to print 1000
or 2000 covers with an offset press, then use them as successive orders
are run digitally for the interior. This assumes that you might
eventually sell at least several hundred books. (When printing a full
color cover digitally, it costs between 60 cents and $1. When printing
2000 copies of covers, the unit cost per cover can be between 10 and 20
cents. So, if you save only 50 or 60 cents per book, the breakeven is
reached at about 200 to 300 copies sold.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->